“Who wouldn’t love a 1st century Roman baptistery? This sentence surely resonates in the heads of the majority and it does so with the gesture and tone of voice of Encarnita Rojas Serrano, the woman, resident of Las Gabias (20,000 inhabitants), in Granada, who unwittingly gave him a unusual fame. a Roman-era building dating back 1,700 years ago. This hit the media when, for the first time Martian Chronicles and then Stray animalsthey visited Encarnita and her sister Josefina there. However, thanks to Jesús Ávila, archivist at Loyola University, we now know that the archaeological discovery had already appeared in the press 50 years ago.
Concretely, as elDiario.es Andalucía was able to confirm, the Roman baptistery of Las Gabias, poorly named because it is in reality a “cryptoporticus”, appeared on page 14 of the newspaper. Country. The page from said journal remains secure in the Loyola University archives.
On the page you can read how this Phalangist newspaper with local circulation in Granada interviewed the Rojas Serrano sisters on October 9, 1976, describing the situation of abandonment in which the monument was found. The situation was such that the keys to the monument were in their hands and not those of the state, despite negotiations for its acquisition half a century after its discovery in the 1920s.
A 4th century cryptoporticus
The cryptoporticus of Las Gabias was discovered in 1920, when Francisco Serrano, grandfather of Josefina and Encarnita, was working on his farm. Apparently, the man observed water leaks which led him to the monument. Although he initially thought it was a mine or a simple underground gallery, later archaeological excavations by Juan Cabré’s team in 1921 confirmed that it was A Roman installation, which initially dated from the 1st century, but was later estimated to have been built in the 4th century as part of a larger building.
The monument was restored by the architect Leopoldo Torres Balbás in 1929. And although in 1931, during the Second Republic, the building was declared a historical and artistic monument, it fell into oblivion until the 1970s, subject to systematic looting, according to published in the Granada press. The site’s marbles, pedestals and mosaics have been lost.
Looting and property issues
Despite the initial confusion since it is commonly called a baptistery, it is a cryptoporticus, a gallery intended for the storage or circulation of a much larger building and which, in this case, would be a villa which would have a baptistery. At present, The Junta de Andalucía works in the environment so that the remains of the Roman villa emerge. It is estimated to be around 1,700 years old and until the death of the Rojas Serrano sisters, the main farm belonged to the family after the grandfather’s discovery in 1920.
However, in the decades since its discovery, different researchers have analyzed the cryptoporticus of Las Gabias and the way in which the Rojas Serrano family acted on it. As some writings say, such as a bulletin of the Academy of Fine Arts from 1994 signed by the historian Manuel Sotomayor, to which this medium also had access, in addition to the various lootings and destructions of Roman buildings that occurred after the restoration of Torres Balbás, the problems of ownership of the properties have delayed any development of the place.
Precisely, said bulletin highlights that in the 1970s – decade in which the cryptoporticus appeared in the press – there were disagreements between the public administration and the owners, not only of the land on which the discovery took place, which belonged to the Rojas Serrano. family, but neighbors. After numerous disputes, the neighboring properties ended up in the hands of the Junta de Andalucía, which is the administration that is currently promoting the excavations that are uncovering the remains of the Roman villa to which the cryptoporticus belonged. However, the central property, the one that belonged to Encarnita and Josefina, belongs to the state.
We now also know that the newspaper Country of Granada already located the cryptoporticus of Las Gabias in 1976 and that Encarnita and Josefina appeared in the press precisely to highlight the administrative problems that kept the work of recovery of the entire archaeological environment on hold. Long before television tours gave it the fame that made the enclave a place of pilgrimage for the curious.
Currently, the Granada Treasury Delegation owns the land which belonged to the Rojas Serrano family and which in popular culture is identified as a baptistery. However, the Council wishes to seize it to complete the archaeological work which will find the Roman villa to which this monument belonged.
