Santiponce

Village of the Aljarafe located 7 kilometres from Seville. The origins of its present location date back to 1595, when its inhabitants abandoned the former site due to frequent flooding. The surrounding landscape comprises fields of cereal, olive groves and fruit orchards.

The ruins of the famous Roman city of Itálica are located within its limits. The city, birthplace of Adrian and Trajan, was one of the most important city of its times. Its most important remains are the amphitheatre, the baths and its mosaics.

Santiponce possesses another interesting monument, the gothic Monastery of San Isidoro del Campo, founded by Alonso Pérez de Guzmán for Cistercian monks.

History

The city has been located at its present-day site since 1603. The inhabitants of a village on the banks of the Guadalquivir River used to suffer from frequent floods, until it disappeared one day carried away by the water. The survivors fled and found refuge around the Monastery of San Isidoro del Campo, which belonged to the Cistercian Order.
This new settlement was established on the site of the ancient roman city of Italica.
During the Roman empire, in the year 206 B.C. Scipio the African set up a military camp here in the war against the Carthaginians. The camp would later grow and become the city of Italica..
It was the first roman city founded in Spain that became an important urban centre, due to the fertile lands that surrounded it.
The 2nd century roman emperors Trajan and Adrian were from Italica.
Under Augustus it became an independent municipality and was able to coin its own money. Under Adrian it was granted the title of colony and incorporated a new district including public buildings intended for the leisure of the upper classes-
Coinciding with the decadence of
Rome, the importance of the city started declining, to such an extent that when the Arabs invaded the peninsula in the 8th century, it had fallen into ruins.

Eminent citizens
Aben Amar, Publio Elio Adriano.