Alcácer do Sal’s history holds a lot of surprises from Ancient times, A luxuous roman domus begins to be excavated, the wealthy romans built amazing houses, richly decorated.

Away from the hustle and bustle of a port city like Alcácer do Sal, were the ideal retreat for the Empire elites.

During archeological excavations conducted in the roman villae for centuries hidden from our view, and despite the small area excavated by archaeologists, the discoveries are surprising:

a magnific discovery of our roman past, one of the rare representations of the Roman Empire centauromachy. A unique mosaic in Portugal.

The closest parallel to the Alcácer do Sal centaur mosaic was found in the Villa of Emperor Hadrian in Tivoli, near Rome.

In faraway Lusitania, many miles from Rome, it shows us how strongly Romanized the Portuguese territory was, how it was clearly in tune with the iconography of the entire empire. We can see here with this fabulous discovery of the centaur mosaic from Salacia, the degree of civilization, the degree of Romanization that existed there.