After prehistoric art and Iberian sculpture, the peninsula entered the history of the Mediterranean thanks to peoples who came by sea.
Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians
The Phoenicians founded trading posts along the Andalusian coast, the most important being Gadir, today's Cádiz, to reach the peninsula's silver and metals. The Cádiz museum holds two marble Phoenician anthropoid sarcophagi, one male and one female. The Greeks of Phocaea founded Emporion, today's Empúries on the Costa Brava, whose remains overlooking the sea are among Spain's most evocative archaeological sites. After the First Punic War the Carthaginians made the peninsula the base of their power, founding Carthago Nova, today's Cartagena.
Roman Hispania
With the Roman conquest the peninsula filled with cities, roads and monuments, many of them still in use or well preserved.
- Mérida, ancient Augusta Emerita, capital of Lusitania, is Spain's most important Roman complex and a UNESCO site: the theatre, still used for a summer festival of classical drama, the amphitheatre, the bridge over the Guadiana, the temple of Diana and the National Museum of Roman Art designed by Rafael Moneo.
- The aqueduct of Segovia, built of granite blocks without mortar, crosses the city on arches up to 28 metres high.
- Tarraco, today's Tarragona, capital of the province of Tarraconensis, keeps its walls, seaside amphitheatre, circus and the nearby Pont del Diable aqueduct.
- Itálica, near Seville, birthplace of the emperors Trajan and Hadrian, has a large amphitheatre and houses with mosaics.
- The walls of Lugo, in Galicia, are the only complete Roman circuit in the world, walkable for over two kilometres.
- The Alcántara bridge over the Tagus, the Tower of Hercules in A Coruña, the oldest Roman lighthouse still working, and the gold mines of Las Médulas, near Ponferrada, are further UNESCO sites.
Rural villas such as Carranque and La Olmeda have yielded splendid mosaics, while Roman towns left the street plan of many modern centres, from Barcelona to León.
Visigothic art
After the fall of Rome the Visigoths ruled from Toledo and left a highly refined art of goldsmithing: the Guarrazar treasure, with gold votive crowns and precious stones offered by the kings, is divided between the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid and the Musée de Cluny in Paris. A few small stone churches also remain, with the horseshoe arch the Moors would later make famous: San Juan de Baños, near Palencia, dated 661, San Pedro de la Nave, near Zamora, and Santa María de Quintanilla de las Viñas, near Burgos.
The story continues with the art of al-Andalus and Romanesque.