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Monumentum

Cerro de San Albín

Although the site at Cerro de San Albín is not a Mithraeum, archaeologists have found several monuments related to the cult of Mithras.
  • Cerro de San Albín, currently the site of the city’s bullring.

    Cerro de San Albín, currently the site of the city’s bullring.
    The New Mithraeum / Andreu Abuín (CC BY-NC-SA) 

  • Aion / Cronos de Mérida

    Aion / Cronos de Mérida
    The New Mithraeum / Andreu Abuín (CC BY-SA) 

  • Detail of Aion legs of Mérida

    Detail of Aion legs of Mérida
    The New Mithraeum / Andreu Abuín (CC BY-SA) 

  • Aion of Mérida

    Aion of Mérida
    The New Mithraeum / Andreu Abuín (CC BY-SA) 

  • Right side of the Aion of Mérida

    Right side of the Aion of Mérida
    The New Mithraeum / Andreu Abuín (CC BY-SA) 

  • Left side of the Aion of Mérida

    Left side of the Aion of Mérida
    The New Mithraeum / Andreu Abuín (CC BY-SA) 

  • Cautopates of Mérida

    Cautopates of Mérida
    The New Mithraeum / Olivier-Antoine Reÿnès (CC BY-SA) 

  • Inscription of the Cautopates of Mérida

    Inscription of the Cautopates of Mérida
    The New Mithraeum / Olivier-Antoine Reÿnès (CC BY-SA) 

  • Naked Mithraic figure

    Naked Mithraic figure
    The New Mithraeum / Olivier-Antoine Reÿnès (CC BY-SA) 

  • Detail of the naked figure from Mérida

    Detail of the naked figure from Mérida
    The New Mithraeum / Olivier-Antoine Reÿnès (CC BY-SA) 

  • Mithraic feast from Mérida

    Mithraic feast from Mérida
    The New Mithraeum / Andreu Abuín (CC BY-SA) 

  • Mithraic feast from Mérida

    Mithraic feast from Mérida
    CIMRM 

  • Altar by Marcus Valerius Secundus of Merida

    Altar by Marcus Valerius Secundus of Merida
    The New Mithraeum / Olivier-Antoine Reÿnès (CC BY-SA) 

  • Left side of the altar by Marcus Valerius Secundus of Merida

    Left side of the altar by Marcus Valerius Secundus of Merida
    The New Mithraeum / Olivier-Antoine Reÿnès (CC BY-SA) 

  • Right side of the altar by Marcus Valerius Secundus of Merida

    Right side of the altar by Marcus Valerius Secundus of Merida
    The New Mithraeum / Olivier-Antoine Reÿnès (CC BY-SA) 

  • Mercury of Merida

    Mercury of Merida
    The New Mithraeum / Andreu Abuín (CC BY-SA) 

  • Cautes of Mérida

    Cautes of Mérida
    The New Mithraeum / Olivier-Antoine Reÿnès (CC BY-SA) 

  • Venus pudica of Mérida

    Venus pudica of Mérida
    The New Mithraeum / Andreu Abuín (CC BY-SA) 

  • Isis of Mérida

    Isis of Mérida
    The New Mithraeum / Olivier-Antoine Reÿnès (CC BY-SA) 

  • Aesclepius of Mérida

    Aesclepius of Mérida
    The New Mithraeum / Andreu Abuín (CC BY-SA) 

  • Altar by Caius Aemelius Superaius of Merida

    Altar by Caius Aemelius Superaius of Merida
    The New Mithraeum / Olivier-Antoine Reÿnès (CC BY-NC-SA) 

  • Altar Caius Iulius of Mérida

    Altar Caius Iulius of Mérida
    The New Mithraeum / Olivier-Antoine Reÿnès (CC BY-NC-SA) 

  • Oceanus of Merida

    Oceanus of Merida
    Tintern (CC BY-NC) 

  • Oceanus of Merida, detail of inscrition on god's thigh

    Oceanus of Merida, detail of inscrition on god's thigh
    Tintern (CC BY-NC) 

  • Small Venus from Mérida

    Small Venus from Mérida
    Museo Nacional de Arte Romano 

  • Head of Serapis from Mérida

    Head of Serapis from Mérida
    Universidad Carlos III de Madrid 

  • Tauroctonía de Mérida. Montaje exposición “Creciendo” del MNARM

    Tauroctonía de Mérida. Montaje exposición “Creciendo” del MNARM
    Universidad Carlos III de Madrid 

 
The New Mithraeum
27 Apr 2010
Updated on Jan 2025

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At Merida a Mithraeum existed about 155 A.D. About the character and the construction of this sanctuary, no data are known, but many monuments were discovered, all kept in the Museo arqueologico Nacional at Merida. I am very grateful to the Keeper of this Museum, Dr. Don Alvares G. de Bunagal for sending me informations and photographs.The accumulation of Mithraic materials has sustained the idea over time that the Mithraeum of Emerita Augusta was located beneath the current bullring in Mérida (Bendala, 1981, pp. 283–289; Bendala, 1986, pp. 345–408), fostering a kind of sympathetic El cul…

Related monuments

Aion of Mérida

The Aion-Chronos of Mérida was found near the bullring of the current city, once capital of the Roman province Hispania Ulterior.

Lion-headed figure of Mérida

The lion-headed figure, Aion, from Mérida, wears oriental knickers fastened at the waist by a cinch strap.

Cautopates from Casa del Mitreo of Mérida

The sculpture of the solar god is signed by its author, Demetrios.

Naked figure from Mérida

This sculpture may be a naked dadophorus, probably Cautopates.

 

Feast from Mérida

This scene of a feast from Mérida shows three persons at a table with other people standing beside them, one holding a bull’s head on a plate.

Altar of Merida consecrated by Marcus Valerius Secundus

This altar is dedicated to the birth of Mithras by a frumentarius of the Legio VII Geminae.

Mercury of Mérida

The statue of Mercury in Merida bears a dedication from the Roman Pater of a community in the city in 155.

Cautes of Mérida

This nude male figure, found at Cerro de San Albín, Mérida, has been identified as Cautes.

 

Venus pudica of Mérida

The Venus pudica of Merida stands next to the young Amor riding a dolplhin.

Isis de Mérida

The Isis of Merida is covered by a long dress that reaches down to her feet.

Aesculapius of Merida

This standing sculptural figure from Mérida appears to carry the serpent staff, characteristic of the medicine god Aesculapius.

Altar by Caius Aemilius Superaius of Merida

Small white marble altar made in honour of Mithras found at San Albín, Mérida.

 

Altar of Gaius Iulius from Mérida

The small Mithraic altar found at Cerro de San Albin, Merida, bears an inscription to the health of a certain Caius Iulius.

Oceaunus of Mérida

The sculpture of Oceanus in Merida bears an inscription by the Pater Patrorum Gaius Accius Hedychrus.

Venus of Mérida small sculpture

The lack of attributes and its decontextualisation prevent us from attributing a specific Mithraic attribution to this small Venus pudica from Mérida.

Serapis head from Mérida

This head of Serapis from Cerro de San Albín may be unrelated to Mithras worship.

 

Altar of Mérida from Quintio

This altar, which has now disappeared, was dedicated by the slave Quintio for the health of a certain Coutius Lupus.

Tauroctony of the Gran Mitreo de Mérida

These fragments of a monumental tauroctony found in the Cerro de San Albín must have decorated the Gran Mitreo de Mérida, which has not yet been found.

 
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