16 - Northeast Sector

In the northeastern area of Conimbriga, there are two buildings whose excavation began in the 1940s, but which is not yet fully completed. The best preserved was named the House of the Trident and Sword because these motifs are represented in one of its mosaics, located in an area of the building where a "schola" may have functioned, a meeting area of a professional corporation whose activity is unknown. The other building would have been utilitarian in nature, as the remains of what appears to have been a laundry were discovered there. These buildings were originally located on a high plane, overlooking the valley that is now behind the Late Empire wall. The construction of this imposing defensive structure required a complete remodelling of the facades of the houses and their respective entrances, since the street, onto which they opened, disappeared under its foundations. The buildings have distinct construction chronologies, but the date of their abandonment, sometime between the 10th and 11th centuries, is common to both.