MERIDA (anc. Augusta Emerita, capital of Lusitania), a town of western Spain, in the province of Badajoz, on the right bank of the river Guadiana, 3o m. E. of Badajoz. Pop. (1930) 17,608. Merida is an important railway junction, for here the Madrid-Badajoz railway meets the lines from Seville, Huelva and Caceres. Augusta Emerita was founded in 25 B.C. As the capi tal of Lusitania it soon became one of the most splendid cities in Iberia, and was large enough to contain a garrison of 90,000 men. In 1129 its archbishopric was formally transferred to Santi ago de Compostela, and in 1228, when Alphonso IX. of Leon ex pelled the Moors, Merida was entrusted to the order of Santiago, in whose keeping it soon sank into decadence. Chief among the Roman remains is the bridge, constructed of granite under Trajan, or Augustus, and restored by the Visigoths in 686 and by Philip III. in 161o. It comprised 81 arches, 17 of which were destroyed during the siege of Badajoz (1812), and measured 2,575 ft. in
length. There are a few remnants of Roman temples and of the colossal wall which encircled the city, besides a Roman triumphal arch, commonly called the Arco de Santiago, and a second Roman bridge, by which the road to Salamanca was carried across the small river Albarregas (Alba Regia). The Moorish alcdzar or citadel was originally the chief Roman fort. From the Lago de Proserpina, or Charca de la Albuera, a large Roman reservoir, 3 m. N., water was conveyed to Merida by an aqueduct, of which there are extensive remains. The massive Roman theatre is in good preservation ; there are also a few vestiges of an amphi theatre and of a circus which measured 485 yd. by 12o. Other Roman remains are exhibited in the archaeological museum.