TARRAGONA (Tarraco)		Quality of Remains
		Ease of Access
		Atmosphere & Setting

History & Occupation:

Tarragona is one of the three most important cities on the Iberian peninsula and by extension one of the most important in the Roman world. During the late republican period, Tarraco became the capital of the province of Hispania Citerior and during the Imperial period, when the Iberian provinces were rearranged, it remained the capital, now of Hispania Tarraconensis. The site was originally fortified by Celtiberian Cesetani tribe long before the Roman period and there has been some suggestion of Phoenician occupation. Roman influence first arrived during the wars against Carthage. The Scipio brothers wintered here in 218BC after landing at Empuries and on their way to Sagunto and Tarraco became a fortress and a winter quarters for the army. After eastern Spain had become largely settled and Romanised, Tarraco lost its military significance, but instead became a civilian town, achieving colony status in the late 1st Century BC and growing fast to take its position as Provincial capital. Augustus also wintered at Tarraco after completing a campaign in Iberia, granting many honours to the town. It was then, in 27BC that the provinces were rearranged and Tarraco gave its name to an entire Province. Augustus resided in the city for 2 years during his Spanish campaigns. The city's extremely defensible position assured its strategic importance, and its position next to the Mediterranean and the river Francoli and its stradling of the Via Augusta assured its importance as a trading centre. From the Augustan period onward, Tarraco began to construct the many glorious civic monuments that mark it as an outstanding example of Roman urbanisation. Indeed, while being only one of three Provincial capitals on the peninsula, Tarraco was the centre of the Imperial cult throughout all three Provinces. In the middle and later 3rd Century, Tarraco came under attack several times in barbarian raids and was occupied briefly. The city never truly recovered, gradually losing power and status to the end of Roman control, even losing its capital status eventually to Barcelona. Despite this loss of importance, Tarragona maintained a certain prestige throughout the later Empire, this time as a religious centre, and has remained occupied for the next two millennia.

Remains and Visit:

The first remains perhaps to discuss would be the walls of the old town. These are fascinating, being of pre-Roman cyclopean stone at the base, with Roman walls built on top of them, capped with medieval stonework and surrounded outside for much of the circuit by walls built by the British during the war of Spanish succession. There is a walk between the two walls with gardens and fragments of Roman stonework that is well worth the walk. Within this is a tower where a relief of Minerva was discovered (still visible half way up.) The remaining walls are no longer visible. The upper city was sealed off by the Hippodrome which ran the full width, wall to wall, and the walls around the lower city are entirely vanished. The amphitheatre is a fine example, built partially into the cliff below the city and is only added to by the ruins of a visigothic church built within its arena to commemorate the martyring of three bishops on the site. Much of the structure survives and is in a beautiful location. The remains of the Hippodrome are less visible, though constant excavation over the last 15 years has brought a great deal to light. Particularly impressive are the tunnels beneath the cavea of the stadium. With some difficulty, it is possible to locate the remains of the theatre, though these are disappointing. After the buildings covering the structure had been torn down, there were some rudimentary excavation decades ago, after which the site was surrounded by hoardings and shut off and left to become overgrown. There are plans to excavate and open again, but they have not come to fruition in the last 15 years. Not far from the Cathedral are the scant remains of the Provincial Forum in a small square, but the Colonial Forum further down the city is much more impressive, taking the space of two city blocks actually above the level of the modern street and connected by a bridge over the road. Further remains can be found in unlikely places. In the Parc de la Ciutat are scant remains of buildings along the Via Augusta. Some work is currently being carried out in two places in the old town, though whether these are Roman or later remains to be seen. Further down toward the river and beyond the park mentioned above is the museum of the Paleochristian Necropolis. This is rather impressive from the outside but, despite five visits, I have never yet found it open, so no report of the interior I'm afraid. There are many sarcophagi visible in the grounds, however. To round off the city, the National Archaeological Museum is one of the best in Spain and interconnects with the Praetorium and the Hippodrome. The massive square tower of the Praetorium has been suggested as part of the palace of Augustus, but is more likely to have been one of a number of perimeter towers around the Provincial Forum. Tarraco has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and rightly so.

Outside the city, other remains are visible in a small radius. The aqueduct that stands by the side of the motorway is a magnificent example of such an edifice. A triumphal arch called the Arco de Bera stands in an island of the coast road (the N340) not far away. A quarry called El Medol and a tower suggested as the funerary monument of the Scipios (though undoubtedly mistakenly) both stand be the N340 between the city and the arch. Also, villas are reachable at the seaside urbanisations of Els Munts and Altafulla to the east, and in the urban outskirts of Constanti. This last is surprisingly interesting. Hidden away in an almost industrial landscape is the villa (or Mausoleum) of Centcelles. This appears to have been both a villa and then a mausoleum and is claimed to have been the burial site of Constans, son of Constantine the Great. Certainly Constans died while fleeing across the Pyrenees, and the name of the area, Constanti, along with the magnificent Christian mosaic decorating the cupola of the mausoleum do lend weight to the claim.

Images:

Aqueduct	City walls	Minerva relief	Provinical forum	Exterior of hippodrome
Hippodrome cavea	Beneath the hippodrome	Sad ruins of the theatre	Colonial forum	Paved road in Colonial forum
Amphitheatre	Arena wall in amphitheatre	Mosaic in the museum	Paleochristian necropolis	Paleochristian necropolis
Centcelles mausoleum	Torre de los Escipiones	Villa of Els Munts	Arco de Bera	Aerial view (c/o Google Earth)