At the eastern end of the Pyrenees, the current border between France and Spain has the Pertús Pass as its main road crossing point between the French department of the Pyrenees Orientales and the province of Girona.
However, in ancient times (and until the 17th century), access was made a little further south of the municipal term, through the Port of Panissars, which today is a relatively wild and isolated place separated from the Pertús pass by a hill in the which stands the fort or castle of Ballaguarda, built in the 17th century.
In the Port of Panissars, at an altitude of about 340 metres, are the ruins of the old priory and the Benedictine hospital of Santa María. Among them are the remains of an older monument erected in 71 BC, Pompey's Trophy.
A Roman garrison of soldiers from Pannonia was stationed there, which would earn it the Roman name of castrum pannoniorum that over time would end up evolving into the term Panissars . At least that's what tradition says. Some Latin authors called it Summus Pyrenaeus (summit of the Pyrenees).
The trophy was raised by Pompey himself, probably to celebrate his victory in the war against Sertorius and before definitively leaving Hispania to return to Rome.
Its stones were used during the Middle Ages in the construction of other nearby buildings, so only the foundations remain, which show that it had to be a construction of considerable volume since they cover an area of 36 by 30 meters.
It stood right at the point where the Via Domitia (created from 118 BC), which ran through southern Gaul to the Alps, entered Hispania. Later, the monument would mark the beginning of the Via Augusta (named after the Emperor Augustus after the repairs that he ordered to be carried out on what was then known as the Herculean Way) on its way to the south of the peninsula.
The exact location of the trophy, although mentioned in classical sources such as Sallust, Strabo or Pliny the Elder, was unknown until it was found during an archaeological survey in 1984, after detecting Roman blocks in the walls of the church of Santa María.
According to the reconstruction carried out by the archaeologists, the monument was a triumphal arch topped by a narrower tower to form a mid-height terrace. The base was a square of 35 meters on each side, crossed by the Roman roads of Via Domitia and Via Augusta. The tower was crowned by a statue of Pompey, and the side facing Hispania was decorated with the names of the 876 cities conquered by the general in the new province.
Other hypotheses indicate that both the arch and the tower could have formed part of a regular pyramid with a base of 35 meters and a height of 60 meters.
In any case, Pompey inaugurated a new conception of the Greco-Roman trophy inspired by Hellenistic turriform monuments such as mausoleums and lighthouses, which would also be the model for the only Republican trophy of this type preserved, that of Augustus in the Alps (7-6 BC. ). The trophy is the earliest known example celebrating Rome's supremacy over the Mediterranean and European world.
Excavations revealed that the section of the Via Domitia was marked by cartwheels and stepped ditches designed to receive sandstone blocks used as foundations.
Today the place is accessible by a path from El Pertús and a forest track from the town of Riunoguès. On Vimeo you can see a video about the Trophy and its hypothetical reconstruction.