The origins of Tarraco
Tarragona and its surroundings constitute the most important Roman heritage of the entire Iberian Peninsula. The archaeological complex was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2000. Although the first date of settlement is difficult to determine, it is believed that the Carthaginians established a trading post here around 500 BC, near an Iberian village. In 218 B.C., when most of the peninsula was under Carthaginian influence, the Second Punic War broke out. In order to cut off Hannibal's legendary elephant army from its rear bases on its way to Rome through the Alps, the consul Cornelius Scipio, uncle of Scipio the African, landed on the Catalan coast with about 20,000 soldiers. He seized a small Punic port and turned it into a military base, which was to be called Tarraco. Numerous battles followed, especially the one that took place in the Ebro delta, which consolidated the naval domination of the Romans and allowed them to conquer the Balearic archipelago. From Tarraco, once the Carthaginians and their local allies were defeated, the Romans conquered most of the Iberian Peninsula over the next two centuries.
A brilliant city
During the Republic, Tarraco became the capital of Hispania Cittàure, which corresponds more or less to the Catalan coast, and then that of the Roman province of Tarracona, which corresponds to more than half of the Iberian Peninsula, after the emperor Augustus had resided there for two years to supervise the conquests in Cantabria. From the second century BC, it was built in the typical monumentality of the dominant Rome. Considered one of the most beautiful and pleasant cities of the empire, long-term residence of two other emperors after Augustus, Galba and Adrian, its remains are the most beautiful of the Roman period in Hispania
At its peak, Tarraco was a small Rome: a fortified city with public buildings dedicated to the gods, administration, culture and entertainment of its inhabitants. There was a clear division between the districts, a rich and intense urban life, it was a small paradise, and this is the reason why several emperors resided there for a long time. Its apogee, in the second century, was short-lived, since the vitality of the city, like the rest of the empire, was hit hard in the middle of the third century, notably with the first incursions of the Franks. Even though Roman laws and customs were, despite the various invasions of the Visigoths in 464, or the Moors in 714, maintained much longer than in other major cities of the Western Roman Empire
First works
It is thus under the initial impulse of Cornelius Scipion that the wall and the port were built, reason for which the city will be called by Pline the ancient, in the first century, Tarraco Scipionum opus . The wall, 3,500 meters long, of which 1,100 meters still remain today, was built on a megalithic stone base that is still visible, and consists of three towers, including that of Minerva, on which the oldest Roman sculpture and inscription in Iberia are found. After its promotion to the rank of Roman colony by Julius Caesar in 45 BC, the passage in the city of the emperor Augustus from 27 to 25 BC, "who made Rome, a city of bricks, a city of marble", the monumentalization really begins in the second half of the first century, with the construction of the complex acropolis including the provincial forum and the circus, over seven hectares, which makes it the largest in the Roman Empire
Main buildings
The provincial forum was composed of two main squares, at different heights. It was a vast space open to the people, a real political and administrative center of the Roman province of Tarraco. The upper square, dedicated to worship, was surrounded by a portico, the remains of which can be seen in the cloister of the cathedral. At the back was what was most likely the meeting room of the council of the province. In the center of the square stood the huge temple dedicated to the cult of the emperor. The lower square of the provincial forum was a huge rectangular enclosure of 318 meters by 175, surrounded by arcades, today replaced by houses. The whole was decorated with gardens and statues. It was also the site of the Praetorian Tower, which in the 12th century was transformed into the palace of the kings of the Crown of Aragon
The circus, where chariot races were held, is one of the best preserved in the Western Roman Empire, despite the fact that it is mostly buried under buildings dating from the nineteenth century. The amphitheater was dedicated to public executions, such as that of the Christian Saint Fructuous in 259, and to gladiatorial combats. The theater was built in the time of Augustus. Some of the columns and statues that faced the semicircular terraces are now preserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Tarragona.
From the middle of the third century, a cemetery was formed that would become the early Christian necropolis, in which the tomb of St. Fructuous would be made a sanctuary, and then embellished with two basilicas in the tenth century
Outside the Roman city
The exterior of the city is also made up of numerous remains of great interest
For example, there is the Tower of the Scipios, a sepulchral monument located six kilometers from the city in the direction of Barcelona, but also two aqueducts, including the one of the Blacksmiths, remarkably preserved. It is 27 meters high and is assembled without mortar. The arch of Bera, twenty kilometers from the city, or the funeral home of Centcelles, located in the village of Constanti, are well worth a visit. It is also the case of the superb stone quarry of Medol, where the impressive remains of the extraction of the materials used to build Tarragona are mixed with lush vegetation. Finally, in Altafulla, you will find the beautiful Villa els Munts, where you can admire mosaics, marble slabs, statues and murals.
