If you would like to see a google satellite photograph of Milreu click here

I spend a lot of time on the A22 riding from where I live at Olhos de Agua to Ayamonte on the Spanish border, a little to the east of Faro there is a sign indicating that there are some Roman ruins at Milreu. Usually however the time that I go past Milreu is either early in the morning or early in the evening. Recently (January 2011) I knew that I would be coming back from Spain early in the afternoon  and having made certain that I took my camera with me I turned off the motorway and following signs initially for Estoi, then followed a sign to Milreu.

The most stunning feature of all is the temple which must stand about 40 feet (12 metres) high and is still a remarkably substantial building particularly as it was built around 2000 years ago. Whilst there is no doubt that the building was built as a temple, it became a Christian church during the early 6th century and even perhaps in the 5th century. It remained a Christian church (there is a baptismal font in the building) until the arrival of the Moors from North Africa in the 8th century.  The remaining part of the Temple consists of what was an inner wall enclosing what might have been known as an inner sanctum with clear evidence of a vaulted ceiling joining an outer wall of which only a little remains up to a height of about one metre.  There is evidence that this building has been damaged by an earthquake of which there are many in Portugal, the largest which have caused considerable loss of life and damage to buildings were in 1755 and 1531, there do not appear to be precise records of dates of earthquakes prior to 1531.

Prior to the Romans building a Villa at Milreu there were Bronze and Iron age settlements on this site, the Romans built there settlement there in the early part of the 1st century AD. The villa clearly belonged to an important family as fragments of very high quality plates and bowls have been found, plus the mosaic floors are of particularly high quality. Busts of the Empress Agrippina (1st century AD) and of the Emperor Hadrian (2nd century AD) have been found in the ruins.

There is a farmhouse that was built on top of the ruins in the middle ages which was inhabited until the 1950s. The inside of this building has been excavated to expose some wonderful mosaic floors, a wine production area involving a wine press, a tank for crushing grapes and a tank in which they put the crushed grapes.

On the north west side of Milreu cellars have been recently discovered, in this area 5 Roman olive presses have been found, the liquid from the presses ran through several lead pipes into thirty six ceramic pots situated in two adjacent cellars. The olive oil produced in Spain and Portugal had a reputation for its high quality and was exported all over the Roman Empire including far flung places such as Britain and Germany.

Export would have undoubtedly have been by ship and probably from Faro which at that time was known as Ossonobra.  Very little of Ossonobra has been discovered because the old town of Faro was built on top of it. There is a paved Roman road in good condition that runs through the centre of Milreu, this probably continued all the way to Ossonobra.

I am very grateful to ‘Roteiros da Arqueologia Portuguesa’ for all the information in their excellent book which I bought from their ticket office, without this book I would not have been able to write this article, it has provided me with a lot of useful and interesting information. Neither this article or my photographs do what is there justice. It is only 5 minutes drive south of the A22 and well worth a visit