Dr. Pilar Caldera de Castro

PhD in History with one of the first theses on Roman glass, she has been a curator at the National Museum of Roman Art in Mérida for more than 30 years. She remains active, running the museum’s volunteer training programme and organising a substantial range of public programmes through historical-reenactment associations (most notably the Ara Concordiae association https://www.facebook.com/AraConcordiae/, https://www.instagram.com/araconcordiae_legioxgemina/).

She takes an active role in designing the historical-reenactment performances, working as documentalist, scriptwriter, actor and host of the reenactments staged at the Museum and at the city’s heritage sites such as the Roman Forum, the Temple of Diana, the House of the Mithraeum, the Circus and others. She was a pioneer in this kind of public-history work, from the very first interventions (Nundinae and Emeritalia) to more recent ones such as Emerita Ludica (www.emerita-lvdica.es/emerita-lvdica/).

For a decade she also led the Network of Museums of Extremadura, where she helped redraw the map of the region’s heritage institutions. The author of numerous publications on museology, she has received several awards in recognition both of her scientific rigour and of her ability to convey expert knowledge of Mérida’s heritage to different audiences. Her contribution has been decisive in the way the local and regional population now embraces its Roman past and its heritage as a defining part of its identity.