Municipium Emporiae (Empúries)

First traces of human presence at this place are from the Neolithic period. The first settlements began at the end of the Bronze age (9th to 8th century BC).

In the first half of the 6th century BC the Greeks from Phocaea settled on a isthmus. The archaeological sources refer to it as Emporion (market). The native settlement stayed beside it. This first Greek city is named Palaià Pólis (first settlement).

Around the middle of the 6th century the settlement place became to small. Therefore a new city was set up (Néa Pólis). The Palaià Pólis remained settled however.

In the year 218 BC - at the beginning of the 2nd Punic war - the Romans under Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio landed in Emporion to block the land way to Italy. In the year 195 BC was built a roman fort above the Néa Pólis. Here developed in the 1st century BC the roman city.

Under Augustus (27 BC to AD 14) the status and name of the city was altered: Municipium Emporiae. Later the city lost slowly its importance. In the second half of the 3rd century AD the roman city and the Néa Pólis were left. The people settled only in the Palaià Pólis, which is called today Sant Martí d'Empúries. Here was a bishop see in the late empire. The northern part of the Néa Pólis was used as a cemetery, here was also a funeral chapel.

In the year 715 the city was conquered by the Moorish. In the year 785 occurred the re-conquest by the Carolingians.

Today are still many traces of the antique past to see:

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