#sagunt

De Salses a Guardamar i de Fraga a l’Alguer: les comarques de parla catalana una a una. 58/88: el Camp de Morvedre (València, Valencian Country).

Camp de Morvedre (meaning “Morvedre’s fields”) is a coastal shire in the Valencian Country. It’s named after its capital city’s old name. Nowadays the city of Morvedre is called Sagunt.

Sagunt is famous for the Siege of Saguntum, which took place in the year 219 BC. In that moment, the two strongest empires in the Mediterranean were the rivals Rome and Carthage. The Carthaginian troops lead by Hannibal sieged the indigenous Iberian city, while the Saguntines asked Rome for help but did not receive an answer. After 8 months of siege, the indigenous city couldn’t resist more and it was invaded by the Carthaginians. Then, Hannibal promised to spare the lives of the population if they abandoned their city unarmed and taking only two garments with them. The population refused, and so the Carthaginians killed every adult.

Controlling Saguntum, Carthage held a strategic position that they could use as a base of operation with its conflict with Rome, which prompted Rome to declate war on Carthage. For this reason, the Siege of Carthage marks the beginning of the Second Punic War, one of the most relevant events in world history, which led to the fall of Carthage and the establishment of Rome as the Mediterranean superpower. If nowadays languages like Catalan, Spanish and Galician-Portuguese exist, it’s because Rome won the Second Punic War.

The Saguntines’ refusal to accept Carthage’s orders became a symbol of resistance against invasion, and in the 19th century it became one of the most iconic moments of the history of the Iberian peninsula.

Nowadays, you can visit the ruins of the ancient Saguntum. You can see some remains of the indigenous Ancient Iberian city that fought Carthage, but Sagunt continued to be an important city and a strategic location, so you can also visit the ruins of the Roman city, a castle built by the Goths and the Arabs and rebuilt during the Napoleonic war. Nearby towns also have a rich historical heritage, as you can see in the photos above.

Here are some of Anton van den Wijngaerde's paintings. He was a Flemish artist who travelled Europe in the 16th century, and thanks to his paintings we get a view of what these cities were like at the time.

After studying painting in the Netherlands and travelling Italy and England, he was commissioned by Philip II, king of the Hispanic Monarchy (remember that at the time the Hispanic Monarchy ruled over many different kingdoms, including Flanders), to paint accurate birds-eye views of cities of his kingdoms. Of course, at the time they didn't have drones nor planes, and not all cities have mountains or hills around them from where the artist could paint it. For this reason, his work was much more difficult, and Wijngaerde had to create these views from a mix of his sketches from different perspectives and various maps, to show a view of the real city up to details like streets disposition.

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