The Mithraeum House - The Columbaria Funer and Royal Monastery of Santa María de Guadalup
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
428 km
Riding-time estimate
5 h 47
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 428 km round trip from Mérida - roughly 5 h 47 in the saddle. It goes by way of Old Town of Cáceres, Royal Monastery of Santa María de Guadalup and back through Old Town of Cáceres. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Scenic road chapters
The Mithraeum House - The Columbaria Funer → Old Town of Cáceres
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 85 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Chapter facts
Length
77 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. The Mithraeum House - The Columbaria Funer
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The Mithraeum House - The Columbaria Funer is where the day begins. Next is Old Town of Cáceres.
2. Old Town of Cáceres
Cáceres has an old town so complete that film crews treat it as a ready-made set, and walking its streets at dusk, when the stone glows amber and the crowds have gone, you can see why. Inside the walls, built largely by the Almohads in the twelfth century, are dozens of fortified mansions, towers, churches and palaces, many built by noble families who made their fortunes in the conquest of the Americas. The towers once had battlements, but Queen Isabella ordered most of them cut down to curb the nobles' power. UNESCO listed the old town in 1986.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at The Mithraeum House - The Columbaria Funer. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
The Mithraeum House - The Columbaria Funer to Old Town of Cáceres
The Mithraeum House - The Columbaria Funer → Old Town of Cáceres is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Old Town of Cáceres to Royal Monastery of Santa María de Guadalup
Old Town of Cáceres → Royal Monastery of Santa María de Guadalup is 137 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Royal Monastery of Santa María de Guadalup to back through Old Town of Cáceres
Royal Monastery of Santa María de Guadalup → back through Old Town of Cáceres is 138 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Old Town of Cáceres to The Mithraeum House - The Columbaria Funer
back through Old Town of Cáceres → The Mithraeum House - The Columbaria Funer is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.