It was the humble and fragile glass that caused the collapse of the cement colossus almost 7,000 square meters in area that stood in what is now the Cerro de La Muela a hillock in the municipality.
It was a building more than 90 meters long, two or three stories high and on the corners of which stood even taller square towers it was one of the largest ever built by the Romans in Hispania and its remains were studied by the University of Guelph (Canada) in the 70s of the last century.
Now, an archaeological report on the latest research carried out by Spanish experts gives a possible answer to its enigmatic use and about which it has been speculating for decades.
It was thought to be a military fortress in the style of those built by Rome on the banks of the Danube to stop the barbarians, as the tower walls are up to 1.20 meters wide.
However, the study signed by Dionisio Urbina and Catalina Urquijo indicates that it was a gigantic warehouse where food (cereals) and tools needed by the thousands of slaves who extracted the valuable a translucent plaster.
That it did the functions of glass until it was discovered in the second century AD addition to the impedimenta of the soldiers who were in charge of avoiding the revolts of the unfortunate who worked in the dark and very narrow mining galleries.
In 1973, after three campaigns, the Canadian archaeologist M. Sadek abandoned the excavation It has taken more than four decades to resume the investigations with modern means to discover the reasons that led.
The construction of such an exceptional building and in the historical context in which it was made indicates the report on this mass of cement. which ceased to have its original use in the second century and was built a hundred years earlier, in the times of Emperor Augustus .
