Ancient Roman City of Tarragona

The city of Tarragona dominates the province as a capital over the entire zone comprised under the tourist brand of the Costa Daurada. Its situation provides her some benign and sunny winters with a special Mediterranean brightness which is present all the seasons of the year. Tarragona was the point of origin of the Romanization and the Christianization of the Iberian Peninsula and, as a consequence, offers an only roman monumental set today. For this reason, in 2000, the Unesco included the Tarragona’s archeological remains on the list of the World Heritage; in order to safeguard the traces of the main administrative, mercantile and literate imperial city of the Iberian peninsula during the roman stage.

The city of Tarraco was the first roman settlement in all the peninsula and it became capital of the Hispania Citerior province and the senior part of the peninsular territory during the Augustus’ term. Tarraco keeps a large list of signs which allow studying the history of the city from the republican period (3rd and 2nd century bC), time of its foundation, until the Paleo-Christian phase. It emphasizes also the singularity of the urban outline conception and its consistent planning, which introduces a group of artificial terraces that follow the natural unevenness of the terrain where we can find very important architectural and archeological vestiges.

Tarraco, the city

The originality of its defensive system, which was constructed among the 3rd and 2nd centuries bC, is based on the use of very singular elements: the particular devices used for the republican wall construction, the combination of native elements in the roman work and its antiquity, as well as the dimensions of the perimeter of the preserved wall. All of them make the wall as a unique monument.

Tarraco’s wall is one of the most ancient testimonies of the roman military engineering of the Iberian Peninsula and the most important element which remains the republican stage. It is due to its outer and inner parameters, its accesses and the several defensive towers which are still intact - tower of Minerva, of the Capiscol and that of the Arquebisbe -. Moreover, the wall is a clear exponent of the technique called ‘opus siliceum’; it is a characteristic constructive technique which came from Italy and was utilized in Etruria and Lacio since the VI century bC.

The architectural structure of the Provincial Forum is considered one of biggest forums of the world (7,5 Has), the best documented of the Imperium, and the causal of the current northern city’s urban plan, which has preserved the majority of the high architectural elements – in some cases until eleven metres high -. It is a big space divided into three terraces, which were posted for the political meetings, the Emperor’s speeches related on the power of the Hispania Citerior’s communities and the institutionalization of the cult. The dimensions of the complex, the quality of the execution and the presence of imported materials have been easily attributed to the imperial workshops that worked during the same period in Rome.

Tarragona preserves the three entertainment roman buildings: theater, amphitheater and circus. The roman theater of Tarraco is the only known in Catalonia and is linked to the Forum City zone. Part of the current vestiges can be rebuilt and some of them permit the possibility of recover their decoration. The joint forum-theater was the devotion center of the imperial house during the august and juli-claudi periods, and the place where the emperor developed his propaganda as a main symbol of the State.

The amphitheater, which was partially excavated on the rock and raised with ‘opus caementicum’ vaults, presents singular characteristics at constructive level. The most genuine and differentiating characteristic of this monument is the presence of two religious structures in the middle of the arena. It is a clear Christianization example of a pagan space, which demonstrates the importance of the city on the first stages of the Christianity. The circus is very singular aswell. The experts say that it is one of the best preserved of the roman world, thanks to its location in the center of the city, being part of the same architectural planning of the monumental and forensic Flavian complex, and organized in three terraces that were part of a unitary project in which the walls marked, directly, its dimensions.

The Forum of the City preserves big part of the juridical basilica, as well as other attached buildings. It highlights for the good conservation of the set and the surrounding ground, besides the vestiges of the streets that recompose part of the urban plot with their direction and the dimensions of the insulae houses. Here we must stress the Paleo-Christian necropolis, the best preserved of the West, which has a great chronological and artistic importance because it shows the deep transformation of the human culture from the III century bC and the rich variety of funereal monuments, sculptural and material vestiges.

The surroundings of Tarragona

The surroundings of Tarragona preserve distinguished vestiges which have a similar importance due to the proximity with the provincial capital. This is the case of the water’s provision net in Tarraco; it still preserves the course of an aqueduct of more than 40 kilometers of length called ‘Pont del Diable’ or Devil’s Bridge, as well as part of its arches and structure. It is singular thanks to its constructive technique; this aqueduct was the first on using the superimposed arcade in the entire peninsula, and one of the best conserved and monumental of Spain and Catalonia. It is a technically flawless work, with dimensions compared with those of the best models of its sort. The same interest appears with the Torre of the Escipions since it is a symbol of the high social classes whose intention is representing themselves on funereal monuments near of the main ways of acces in Tarraco. They are an example of the monumental character as an element of social prestige of a family group or the deceased person who lies there.

Near the city, we can find several quarries which were used for the construction of many important buildings of Tarraco. The main ones are that of Santa Tecla, used for imported marble replacement, and that of the Mèdol, whose importance consists in its archeological, geological and botanical interest due to the singular microclimate that allows the existence of vegetal species - some of them are already in process of disappearance -. We also find the ‘Vila dels Munts’ one of the most important of all Catalonia for its richness in pavements, sculptures and materials in general, as well as the greatness of the town set with its two thermal complexes. Another example is the little town of Centelles, which is dated of the IV century bC and was transformed into a funereal monument after its construction, maybe to contain the corpse of the Constant emperor. The preserved mosaics remains on its dome have a great artistic and technical quality, converting it into one of the main Paleo-Christian sets of the roman world. Finally, we can speak about the ‘Arc de Triomf de Berà’, which marks the revelance of the province capitality during the August period and testifies the reform of the communications and means of transport between Gades and Rome: the Via Augusta.

In the Archeologic National Museum of Tarragona there is a complete exposition of all those materials that the archeologic research has retrieved from the roman city, and whose sculptural, ornamental and epigraphic collections and its pottery, glass, bronze and ivory objects complete this unique vision of the roman presence in Catalonia.