Mérida was founded in 25 BC as Emerita Augusta, a colony for veterans of Augustus's Cantabrian wars, and for centuries it was one of the greatest cities of Roman Spain, capital of the province of Lusitania. It still has a theatre and an amphitheatre side by side, a circus that could hold tens of thousands, a bridge over the Guadiana of about 790 metres that remains in use, and an aqueduct whose brick-and-granite piers rise above the road like the legs of a giant. The Casa del Mitreo and the Columbaria lie on the south-east edge of the old centre, near the bullring, and they show a more private side of Roman life.
The Mitreo is a Roman townhouse where an altar to the god Mithras was found, and its floors include mosaics, among them a cosmological scene of the elements. Mithras was a god of soldiers and merchants, worshipped in underground chambers, and Mérida, full of veterans, would have been a natural home for the cult. Next door the Columbaria are tombs, with niches in the walls where the ashes of the dead were placed, and their painted decoration is a reminder that Romans buried their dead close to the road and in company.
Mérida is simple to reach and easy to like. From Cáceres or Badajoz the road crosses dehesa, oak parkland dotted with black Iberian pigs and cork trees, and the riding is fast and open with broad bends and little traffic. In summer the temperature in Extremadura can soar above forty degrees, so plan to be here in spring or autumn, and never leave a jacket on the saddle in July. Calamonte, five kilometres away, and the other satellite towns offer plenty of fuel.
Eating here means jamón, the soft cheese called torta del Casar, and wines of the Ribera del Guadiana, and the old centre has plenty of terraces on the shaded squares. The Roman monuments are best seen early or late, when the stone is warm and there are fewer visitors. Some twenty kilometres to the south-east, the thermal baths at Alange have been used since Roman times and make a good restful side trip after a hot day in the saddle. Leave the bike in a paying car park rather than on a street near the monuments.