Mérida (Spanish: [ˈmeɾiða] ⓘ) is a city and municipality of Spain, part of the Province of Badajoz, and capital of the autonomous community of Extremadura.

Located in the western-central part of the Iberian Peninsula at 217 metres above sea level, the city is crossed by the Guadiana and Albarregas rivers.

Augusta Emerita was founded as a Roman colony in 25 BC under the order of the emperor Augustus to serve as a retreat for the veteran soldiers (emeritus) of the legions V Alaudae and X Gemina.

It is part of the name that the city received after its foundation by the emperor Augustus in 25 BC, Augusta Emerita, colony in which veteran soldiers or emeritus settled.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the Visigothic period, the city maintained much of its splendor, especially under the 6th-century domination of the bishops, when it was the capital of Hispania.

In 713 it was conquered by the Muslim army under Musa ibn Nusayr, and became the capital of the cora of Mérida; the Arabs re-used most of the old Roman buildings and expanded some, such as the Alcazaba.

A period of recovery started for Mérida after the unification of the crowns of Aragon and Castile (15th century), thanks to the support of Alonso de Cárdenas, Grand Master of the Order.

Mérida has a Mediterranean climate with Atlantic influences (Köppen: Csa; Trewartha: Csak), due to the proximity of the Portuguese coast.

However, there is frequent fog, especially in the central months of autumn and winter.Each year the city holds a week-long event to celebrate the Roman history of the area.

They include parades, brightly-costumed attendees, fiercely-armored gladiators, mock battles in the ancient amphitheater, plus some simulation of the daily life in that period.

[10] Annexed is a fortification (the Alcazaba), built by the Muslim emir Abd ar-Rahman II in 835 on the Roman walls and Roman-Visigothic edifices in the area.