Torre de Benagalbón, in Rincón de la Victoria (Málaga, 49,790 inhabitants), is a privileged town in the 21st century. It has long beaches, a mild climate, and fertile land for cultivation. Residents and tourists enjoy the area today, but it was already done by those who lived 1,700 years ago. This is the case of the Roman family that, between the end of the 3rd century and the beginning of the 4th, decided to move 15 kilometers away from ancient Malacca and build their home facing the sea in this area and dedicate themselves to manufacturing garum. (a fish sauce). A villa that has remained hidden underground until some recovery work has allowed it to be visited. Open to the public since December 19, the 11 mosaics that spread across the floor as well as the integration of the site under a block of flats, also with views of the Mediterranean, are surprising.

The fact that this town has reached the year 2023 alive has a lot to do with the tenacity of an archaeologist. In 2003, when Juan Bautista Salado was going to work from his home in Rincón de la Victoria to his office in Malaga, he deviated his way daily to pass next to a plot where the construction of a new building was planned. He had a certain obsession. He accumulated evidence that indicated that this place hid part of the local history and he did not want the machines to destroy it. Day after day he would drive, check for activity and keep going. Until one Friday he saw that the work had begun. He looked at the profile of the ground and found what he supposed: remains from the Roman period. He called the then Town Planning councilor, Francisco Salado, his brother, to request the stoppage of the work that would devastate history. He ignored her.

The subsequent steps were not easy. In the days of the rampant housing boom, halting the construction of a block of flats seemed sacrilege. The investigation into the importance of the villa was a strong argument for achieving this, but what worked best was the dialogue. The Rincón de la Victoria City Council reached an agreement with the promoter: it allowed it to build one more floor in height and compensated it with a plot in another part of the municipality "in exchange for giving it the ground floor where the deposit was and another one in the adjoining building”, as pointed out by the current Councilor for Town Planning, Housing, and Historical Heritage, Miguel Ángel Jiménez. The archeology was covered up, the building was raised and the council sought financing. Until in 2018 the Government awarded almost 700,000 euros from the cultural 1.5% (the percentage that each public works contract must allocate to historical heritage or artistic creativity) and the municipality contributed another 900,000.an erotic scene with Zeus seducing the Theban princess.

Exemplary maritime village

“This is an example of how, if you act well, quickly and with consensus, you can perfectly marry urban planning interests with patrimonial ones”, says Juan Bautista Salado, excited, after two decades of perseverance to monitor the work. Today he is the director of the Nerja Museum, whose foundation has been essential in the project, as well as the technical director of the musicalization of the site. His brother is now the mayor of Rincón de la Victoria, who stresses the importance of "opening up this Roman villa to the world." Engineering work has been necessary so that it can be accessed, with beams almost two meters high and 25 meters long. A window allows a complete panoramic view of the 1,200 square meters of space. And a walkway runs around the entire perimeter to discover its construction secrets, its economic activity, and its daily life with the support of information panels, videos, and augmented reality. There is even an Adorama to smell the garum ingredients. The sauce sucks.

"It is the best-preserved maritime town in Andalusia," says the archaeologist and director of the Antequera Museum, Manuel Romero, who has participated as a technical advisor in enhancing the site, which he praises for the solution chosen between the municipality and the developer. He acknowledges that the house has more modest dimensions than the large buildings in the interior of Roman Baetica, such as those around Antequera, but in return, the good conservation of the mosaics stands out. In fact, the interior floor is completely covered with drawings of geometric shapes, some made with more skill than others. The bedroom, where the only one with human figures is located, is the most detailed, but there are tiles that cover the corridor —31 meters long— or even an exterior porch through which one can now walk. Some figures are poorly finished, a demonstration that not all the crews worked with the same quality.

What the thousands of small pieces of slate, schist, and limestone in the mosaics also denote is the wealth of the owner. And that it was not eternal. In the 5th century, the space fell into disuse and in the end, the building ended up serving as a corral. In the VI, already abandoned, the looters destroyed masonry, bricks, and ornamental sculptures. Only a small figure of Bacchus has been saved, which can now be seen in some showcases along with almost 150 other pieces from the town such as tiles, needles to sew fishing nets, a fishhook, or glass. There are also earlier materials from the Phoenician period and later from Nasrid times. The site is part of an area declared an Asset of Cultural Interest in 2008 that includes Phoenician remains from the 7th century BC and some 2nd-century Roman baths located nearby.