Los Bañales receives 2,300 euros from the prestigious British Roman Society to continue excavating the Roman city

The Los Bañales - Roma en Cinco Villas Foundation has received financial support from the Roman Society, a private organization founded in 1910 to advance knowledge the history of Ancient Rome, to continue promoting research at the Roman city of Los Bañales, one of the most monumental and visited Roman archaeological sites in Aragon.

Since its establishment in 2025, the Los Bañales Foundation has set as one of its objectives the securing of funding from all possible local, regional, national, and international grants—whether private or public—to assist it in its goal excavate, protect, consolidate, and promote the significant Roman remains found at the site and in its surrounding area, particularly in the municipalities of Uncastillo, Layana, Sádaba, and Biota, which were part of the rural territory surrounding the city that flourished in Los Bañales during the Roman Imperial period.

With the addition of the 2,300 euros from the Roman Society, the Los Bañales Foundation has already raised nearly 40,000 euros—solely from private funding sources—to carry out the 2026 excavation and conservation campaign. These figures demonstrate the vitality of Los Bañales not only as a source development and cultural development , but also as an economic driver for the Cinco Villas region, thanks to the autonomy and momentum the project gained since the Los Bañales Foundation was established.

The award of funding to Los Bañales from the Roman Society’s Donald Atkinson Funds marks a milestone for the Cinco Villas region of Aragon, as this is the first time a Spanish archaeological site has received financial aid from this fund, which has been offering grants and awards of this nature for over a decade. It is also the first time that a Spanish archaeological team—led in the case of Los Bañales by Javier Andreu since 2008—has secured funding through this program, underscoring the project prestige in the international academic community and its role in promoting the image of Aragón and the Cinco Villas abroad.

A roof tile manufacturing plant in Los Bañales

One of the most notable findings of the 2024 archaeological campaign was the finding, thanks to the survey work of Eugenio Monesma, of a workshop producing Roman roof tiles and brick building materials in the area of Los Bañales, near the site known as El Huso and La Rueca, where it was established within the productive belt of the Roman city of Los Bañales, which in its heyday had a population of over 2,000 inhabitants.

Convinced of the importance of this site, the Los Bañales-Roma Foundation in Cinco Villas applied in early 2026 financial aid the Roman Society to excavate this tile-making workshop, known in Roman times as a figlina tegularia. The archaeological work will include a remote sensing phase (aerial imagery and LiDAR), a field survey, a two-week excavation campaign with scholarship students, and a final consolidation phase with the goal determining the workshop’s extent, chronology, and function, as well as its role in regional construction practices and local monumentalization, placing it in relation to the size and extent of the city.

In awarding this financial aid, the Los Bañales-Roma Foundation in Cinco Villas has relied on letters of recommendation from researchers at New York University and the University of Hamburg who are members of committee International committee that has been advising the Los Bañales project since 2022. The project is directed by Javier Andreu, Full Professor Ancient History at the University of Navarra. This International committee was established with the support of the programs of study Villas Center for programs of study .