Empúries

Listen first. Somewhere behind the pines, small waves are breaking on a pale beach. Under your feet there is dry, crumbly earth and the low edges of old stone walls, no higher than your knees. The air smells of salt, warm resin and wild herbs. On a clear day the whole Bay of Roses opens out in front of you. Before you look at a single ruin, notice how close the sea is. Everything here began with that water.

This is Empúries, on the edge of the town of L'Escala on the Costa Brava. It is one of the most important archaeological sites in Spain. Here, two ancient worlds lie side by side. One is a Greek trading town. The other is a Roman city on the hill above it. Walking between them, you cross centuries in a few minutes.

The story starts in the sixth century before Christ. Greek sailors from Phocaea, a city on the coast of what is now Turkey, had already founded Massalia, today's Marseille. From there, some of them sailed south along this coast. They looked for a safe harbour and local people who wanted to trade. They found both here. They called their settlement Emporion, which simply means the trading post, or the market. The modern name Empúries comes directly from that Greek word.

Here is the first surprise. The very first Greek settlement is not in these ruins at all. It was on a small island just to the north, a short walk along the shore. That island is now joined to the land, and the medieval village of Sant Martí d'Empúries stands on top of it. Archaeologists call that first site the Palaiapolis, the old city. Later, the Greeks moved onto the mainland and built the town you are standing in. They called it the Neapolis, the new city.

The Greeks did not arrive in an empty land. An Iberian people, the Indiketes, lived in this region. The Iberians were the native peoples of the eastern coast of the peninsula. They had their own villages, their own language and their own trade. For the Greeks, they were neighbours, customers and partners. Wine, oil, fine pottery and metal goods moved through this harbour. In return, grain and other local products went out across the Mediterranean. Emporion was a meeting point, not a fortress at the end of the world.

As you walk through the Greek town, look at the layout. The streets are narrow. The houses sit close together, and many walls survive only as foundations. You can still read the plan of the town in the stone. Look for the remains of the agora, the public square at the heart of Greek city life. Close to it stood a long covered hall called a stoa. People met there to trade, talk and shelter from the sun. Stand in that open space for a moment and imagine the noise of a market day.

Water was precious here. In the Greek town you will find cisterns, deep stone tanks that collected rainwater. Some still have their smooth, rounded walls. In the sacred area near the old town walls stood temples and shrines. One of them was linked to Asclepius, the Greek god of healing. A white marble statue of the god was found at Empúries in the early twentieth century. It became one of the best-known finds from the site. Today a figure of Asclepius stands in the sacred area, so look for him as you pass.

Now comes a turning point in the history of the whole peninsula. In 218 BC, during the Second Punic War, a Roman army landed here. Rome was at war with Carthage, the great power of North Africa, whose general Hannibal was marching toward Italy. The Romans chose this friendly Greek harbour as their first foothold in the Iberian Peninsula. From this beach, Roman power slowly spread across the land that would later become Spain and Portugal.

The Romans stayed. On the higher ground above the Greek town, they built their own city with a regular grid of streets. It was much larger than the Greek settlement. Walk up the slope and the change is easy to see. The streets become wider and straighter. There are large houses built around courtyards, some with mosaic floors made of small pieces of coloured stone. There was a forum, the main public square of a Roman town, with temples and shops around it. Outside the walls you can see traces of an amphitheatre.

Over time, the two communities grew together into one town. But the good years did not last forever. In the late Roman period, trade moved elsewhere and the town slowly declined. People left. Sand, soil and pine needles covered the walls. For many centuries, the ruins lay mostly hidden. Scientific excavation began in the early twentieth century, and work here still continues. Only part of the Roman city has been uncovered so far. Much of it still lies under the fields.

Here is the second surprise, and it is a modern one. In 1992, the Olympic flame for the Barcelona Games came to Spain by sea and landed here at Empúries. The organisers chose this beach on purpose. The flame came from Greece, and it arrived at the place where Greek sailors had landed more than two and a half thousand years earlier. The ancient story and the modern one met on the same strip of sand.

Before you leave, visit the small museum on the site. It holds pottery, coins, tools and other objects found in the excavations, and it helps the ruins make sense. Then walk down toward the beach. Near the shore you can see the remains of an old stone breakwater, built to protect boats from the waves. From there, a coastal path runs north to Sant Martí d'Empúries and south toward L'Escala. Both walks are short and easy, with the sea beside you all the way.

As you go, look back once at the low walls among the pines. They do not look grand. There are no tall columns, no great arches. But this quiet ground marks the place where Greek and Roman culture first came ashore in this part of Europe. Listen again to the waves, the same sound those first sailors heard as they pulled their boats onto the sand. Then take your time on the path, and let the sea lead you on.