Santiponce, Spain

Photographer: DANIEL GONZALEZ ACUÑA

Year of Submission: 2016 (Educators Edition) 

Javier Santana is president of Hispania Romana, a Spanish association dedicated to recreating the world of the Roman empire. Since 2000, Javier and his fellow members have dressed up as gladiators, senators, soldiers and even prostitutes for audiences at festivals, archaeological sites and schools in Spain and across Europe. The biggest event of Javier’s year is the “Italica Viva Re-enactment Weekend” he organises in the southern Spanish city of Santiponce, the hometown of emperors Trajan and Hadrian. Over two days, a hundred and fiy performers from across Spain re-enact their idea of what life was like in ancient Rome for crowds of up to nearly ten