Roman forum will be open to public after the summer

The excavating work at the forum of the ancient Roman city of Polentia near Alcudia, which started on June 18, will continue throughout the summer, and it will then be opened to the public. The work has a budget of 31 million pesetas. The project is designed to consolidate the remains of the forum so that it can be visited. It is also hoped to link the area known as Sa Portella, which was the residential part of the city and is now open to the public, to the forum, so that a visit will take in a complete tour of the ruins. The work is being carried out by the company Mineries i Subcontractes de Mallorca, and are supervised by the archaeologists Julio Roman and Maribel Mancilla, and by the director of the worksite, Margarida Orfila. At present, only seven per cent of the city has been excavated and a road is now being built to link Sa Portella with the forum. This year, workers will include 20 university students following a variety of degree courses who will be attending a summer course on archaeology, plus volunteers. They come from all over Spain, including the Canary Islands, Granada, Valencia, Segovia and Cordoba, as well as Majorca.