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Archaeological site of Libisosa

Lezuza, Sierra de Alcaraz y Campo de Montiel, Albacete

1 Villages · 3 Monuments · 1 Nature · 2 Activities · 1 Curiosities · 2 Historical milestones

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Archaeological site of Libisosa

Nature · Lezuza, Sierra de Alcaraz y Campo de Montiel, Albacete

The Libisosa archaeological site occupies the Cerro del Castillo de Lezuza (Albacete): thirty hectares with remains from the Final Bronze Age to the Late Middle Ages, this last period dominated by the watchtower that gives the hill its name. In Roman times it was an important colony built over an Oretanian Iberian settlement of the 5th century BC mentioned by Ptolemy; notable features include its late Republican wall and the forum mentioned by Pliny the Elder, and, as Libisosa Foroaugustana, it was a stop on the Via Augusta. Its excellent Ibero-Roman preservation is due to the “burial effect” of a sudden destruction that left a frozen image of the site, today a reference point for the Final Iberian period and Republican Hispania. Excavated without interruption since 1996 by the University of Alicante, in 2021 the process began to declare it an archaeological park.

Photo: Chocid~commonswiki (Wikimedia Commons) (CC BY-SA 3.0)

What to see and do in Lezuza