Venus Hill

I bought a house in a small town in Spain. It needed, and still needs, plenty of  work and redecorating but it had a good roof on it, all the plumbing & appliances worked and I could afford it.

Funny thing about small towns is that many times your new, potential neighbors are not forthcoming with all the pertinent information about the house you want to purchase no matter how much they like you or how much you insist.

This is understandable, really.

They liked the lady that lived here, knew she was getting older and didn't want to ruin her sale. Of course, they wouldn't have but I would have asked for a lower sale price had I known that the enormous pine tree out front had been loose at the roots a few years before, or about the dampness in the garage (Spain had experienced at least 5 years of drought - now over - before I purchased) or the strange plumbing adjustments made by the owner's by-then-deceased tailor/handyman husband. Shame on me for not inspecting the house better.

However, the most pertinent fact remained elusive for about a year after the purchase; my house was built on the site of the ruins of a Roman Temple of Venus.

I discovered this fact by accident. I was having a beer at a local bar when I stopped to look at the photographs hung on the wall. They were snapshots of different events in town over the past 80 years or so; a town fair, a mayor with a celebrity, the new mill and an archeological dig. I asked the bar owner about the dig photo. Who was the man in the foreground? What was he holding? and then I realized that he was standing where my house now stands!

Some still refer to this hill as Venus Hill. From here there is a panoramic view of the river, cliffs and fertile plains of the Jarama river. A nice view for Venus.

Follow me on Twitter @sharonlinapearc