Site

The Iruña-Veleia deposit is located in the municipality of Iruña de Oca / Iruña Oka, about 10 km west of Vitoria-Gasteiz, occupying the Arkiz spur, delimited to the North, South and West by a large meander of the Zadorra river. . Of its 126 hectares, 11 belong to the walled area.

History

The known occupation at the Iruña site covers more than 1500 years of history, from the first millennium B.C. until the 5th century AD It seems that in this century the late oppidum would be abandoned, a new settlement not being documented until its use as Priory of the Order of Saint John in the middle of the fourteenth century.
After a poorly defined occupation in the late bronze and Iron Age, it is during the first half of the 1st century AD. (Julio-Caludia era), when the first Roman domus or urban dwellings appear.

Late in the 1st century, in Flavia, the city reaches greater splendor, building luxurious homes and large public buildings that had to form an urban center according to the importance that had acquired the city of Iruña.

In the second century important works of beautification and improvement of urban facilities are also carried out, being cited Veleia in the ancient sources by Pliny and Ptolemy.

During the 3rd century, it reduced its urban area although no doubt this period is the worst known. At the end of that century or early next the walls were built that would be the last great public work made in the city.

Iruña-Veleia

The flowering of Iruña-Veleiea as a city was surely due to the fact that the Alavés territory was crossed by a main communication route: a road, commonly known as iter XXXIV and linking the then important cities of Astorga and Bordeaux, this fact we know thanks to the descriptions of some ancient itineraries, such as the call of Antonino. Apparently this road once crossed by the Ebro River was headed to the mansio of Beleia, the first located in the present territory of Alava, a station that the investigations coincide in identifying with the so-called "Oppidum de Iruña".

Some of the materials from the excavation of the site are located on the third floor of the Bibat Museum Archaeology section.

All other materials from Exceptional (de los que trata esta web) los tiene Diputación (parte acusadora) en el Museo Bibat, bajo su custodia»