EL FORO DE LA GRANADA ROMANA. PLANOS, PLANTAS, ALZADOS Y DIBUJOS

Abstract

In the middle of the eighteenth century Juan de Flores undertook a series of excavations in the district of Albaicín. He found the paved square of the forum of Roman Granada (Florentia Iliberritana), inscriptions, as well certain architectonic elements of neighbouring buildings. In parallel, he set about making various forgeries, especially through inscriptions, using for this different alphabets that only a few could decipher. He was arrested, tried and condemned, the falsifications destroyed and the remains he had found were covered up. These event shelped to promote the controversy that had been raised for more than a century about where the ancient Iberian-Roman city Iberian Iliberri (Ilíberis or Elvira) was located, whether inSierra Elvira or the Albaicin. The analysis of the elevations and plans made by Flores, which disappeared not long ago, presented in this article, together with others that were developed a posteriori, enable us to locate and confirm the authenticity, which now cannot be doubted, of Flores’ main finding: the forum of Municipium Florentinum Iliberritanum.