Portus Ilicitanus La Picola

"The ruins are amazing, but it's not very well preserved, bit of rubbish laying around and all fenced up."

Luna Perich Paglia

"Visit two Roman sites preserved in Santa Pola. Start at the Palmeral, where you'll be shown a Roman dwelling, where some of the mosaics are very well preserved. Then, they show you the area where the port was thought to be and explain the progress being made in the excavations they're currently underway. They've even found a gold coin!
Highly recommended for learning about Santa Pola's cultural and archaeological heritage.
Tours are free and organized by the Museo del Mar."

Pilar

"We are going to discuss today's marvelous site. We will focus on the only currently visible remains of the ancient port of the Roman colony of Iulia Ilici Augusta, the Portus Ilicitanus. It should be noted first of all that, although the archaeological site is not very large, what we will see is only a tiny portion, battered by time, circumstances, and people, of the entire enormous urban complex that was the Roman port, and which currently lies beneath the subsoil of Santa Pola.
We must assume that the portus was established when the colony of Ilici was founded by Augustus during the late 1st century BC or early 1st century AD, accompanying the progress and development of the main metropolis on which it depended. The city of Ilici was located about 8 km from its port. We must understand the enormous logistical, commercial, and strategic importance of a city with access to the sea, and even more so if the sea that lapped its shores was the Mediterranean during the height of Roman rule. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand the enormous urban development, embodied in extensive building projects, that took place in the port and its city. Its population spanned chronologically from the High Roman Empire to Late Antiquity, and its prestige remained unchanged despite numerous transformations in its urban layout and infrastructure.
Proof of this influence and global strategic importance of the Roman state is the fact that in 460 or 461 AD, Emperor Majorian assembled his military fleet of around three hundred ships at the Portus Ilicitanus, and nowhere else, with the aim of attacking the coasts of North Africa and recapturing this precious province from the clutches of the Vandals. Unfortunately, the emperor was betrayed and his fleet destroyed, but had the venture been successful, the Romans would have recovered their grain supply for Italy, which would have meant, among other things, a possibility for the continuity and survival of the Western Roman Empire.
Speaking of the site itself, the perfectly developed remains, carefully curated and restored, comprise two streets through which various warehouses and industrial facilities were initially arranged, later transformed into housing, a few hydraulic canals, and a vast monumental public building of considerable size. Aside from the latter, the remaining buildings correspond to the typical infrastructure of a port, with buildings dedicated to the storage and processing of products that must have been destined for shipment, or that, coming from distant waters, were awaiting distribution throughout our lands.
The so-called public building, whose function and attribution have not yet been clarified, is characterized by powerful plinths of considerable thickness. Its floor plan is basilica-like, and its cells and part of an altar are believed to have been discovered, raising the possibility that it may have been a temple, although it is too early to confirm anything since the site is still being excavated.
I highly recommend a visit to this impressive archaeological site, which, together with the Casa del Portus, represents everything that the cruel destructive hand of modern man has left us from the ancient Roman port. A guided tour is required to access the ruins for the time being, but it is absolutely worth it if you want to visit what was once one of the most important commercial ports on the Levantine coast of ancient Hispania, whose extensive architectural development and survival through the spiral of decline that the empire went through in its final stage, shows us the renown and magnificence that it once boasted, a status barely perceptible today due to the aggressions committed in the recent past, but which can nevertheless be slightly glimpsed through the extremely interesting ruins of this incredible port district."

Vicent Gorriz Escriva