Tarraco was born in 218 BC as a camp of the Scipio brothers and became the capital of the largest province of Hispania. Augustus governed from here for months, and the city raised one of the first temples to the emperor in the provinces. Twelve stops between the balcony over the sea, the amphitheatre of the martyrs, the vaults of the circus, the praetorium tower, the great square of the provincial forum, the cathedral over the temple of Augustus, the oldest Roman walls outside Italy, the tower of Minerva, the medieval streets, the forum of the colony, the theatre by the port and the necropolis that surfaced when a tobacco factory was built. Approximate audio duration: 21 minutes.
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Tarragona: la capital romana de Hispania que hoy vive debajo de sus casas
Tarraco nació en el 218 antes de Cristo como campamento de los hermanos Escipión y llegó a ser la capital de la provincia más grande de Hispania. Augusto gobernó desde acá durante meses y la ciudad le levantó uno de los primeros templos dedicados al emperador en las provincias. Doce paradas entre el balcón sobre el mar, el anfiteatro de los mártires, las bóvedas del circo, la torre del pretorio, la gran plaza del foro provincial, la catedral sobre el templo de Augusto, las murallas más antiguas de Roma fuera de Italia, la torre de Minerva, las calles medievales, el foro de la colonia, el teatro junto al puerto y la necrópolis que apareció al construir una fábrica de tabaco. Duración aproximada de audio: 21 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~21 min of audio · 4.46 km on foot (~1 h 5 min walking) · about 1 h 30 min in total
You are standing on the Balcó del Mediterrani, at the end of the Rambla Nova. The sea is in front of you, and below, to your left, is the stone curve of the Roman amphitheatre. Locals have a habit here: touching the iron railing for luck. They call it tocar ferro.
From up here it is easy to see why the Romans chose this spot. A rocky hill above the coast, easy to defend, with a natural harbour below. In 218 BC, at the start of the Second Punic War, Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio landed at Emporion and set up a base here against Hannibal.
His brother Publius soon followed, and later his nephew, the …
2
The Amphitheatre Facing the Sea
You are in front of the amphitheatre, with the sea just a few metres away. The seats on the hillside are carved into the rock itself. Those on the seaward side stood on vaults, because the ground fell away there.
It was built in the early second century AD, outside the walls, beside the road into the city. It held around fourteen thousand spectators. Look at the middle of the arena: those cross-shaped trenches were pits where animals and stage machinery were kept for the shows.
There were gladiator fights and wild beast hunts here. But the event that defined this place was another. On 21 Jan…
3
A Circus Beneath the City
You are on the Rambla Vella. It looks like just another shopping street, but you are walking alongside the southern side of a Roman circus. The façades you see literally rest on its seating.
The circus was built at the end of the first century, under Emperor Domitian. It was about three hundred and twenty-five metres long and could hold some thirty thousand people. Chariot races were run here, the most popular spectacle in the Roman world.
What is unusual is where it sits. Circuses were usually built outside cities, because they took up so much room. Tarraco's ended up inside, wedged between…
4
The Tower Linking Circus and Forum
You are on the Plaça del Rei, in front of a massive stone tower. They call it the Praetorium, although it was never a praetorium in the strict sense. It was one of the towers that connected the different levels of upper Tarraco.
Think of the city as a giant staircase. At the bottom, the circus. In the middle, the huge square of the provincial forum. At the top, the temple. This tower, with its stairways and vaulted passages, allowed people to move from one level to the next.
The whole complex was built under the Flavian emperors, at the end of the first century. It was the seat of government…
5
The Greatest Square in Hispania
You are on the Plaça del Fòrum, among houses, bars and a chunk of Roman wall. It is hard to picture, but you are standing inside one of the largest public squares in the Roman world. This whole part of the old town fills its footprint.
The square of the provincial forum measured roughly three hundred metres long by about one hundred and seventy-five wide. It was framed by colonnaded porticoes and decorated with statues of the province's leading men. Many of their inscribed bases survive in the Archaeological Museum.
This was not the city's forum, which lay further down and which you will see…
6
The Cathedral Over the Temple of Augustus
You are at the foot of the cathedral steps. Look at the façade: below, a great Gothic portal; above, a huge rose window; and on either side, older Romanesque doors. That mixture tells its story: it was begun in 1171 and consecrated in 1331.
This is the highest point in the city. And that is no accident. Here stood the upper terrace of the Roman complex, with the temple dedicated to Emperor Augustus.
Augustus knew Tarraco well. Between 26 and 25 BC, during the wars against the Cantabrians and Asturians, he settled here, ill, and ran the empire from this city for months. According to Suetonius…
7
The Walls of the Scipios
You are at the Portal del Roser, the entrance to the Passeig Arqueològic. In front of you is the Roman wall of Tarraco. Look at the base: huge rough-hewn stone blocks, some weighing several tonnes, stacked with hardly any mortar.
This wall is one of the oldest Roman structures surviving outside Italy. Its first phase dates from the late third or early second century BC, when Tarraco was still mainly a military base.
Notice the difference between the lower and upper parts. Below are the cyclopean blocks of the first wall. Above are more regular ashlars from a later extension in the second cen…
8
Minerva Guards the Wall
You are in front of the Tower of Minerva, one of the original towers of the wall. Look on the outer face for a worn relief: it is the goddess Minerva, with helmet and shield, protector of the city.
Next to that relief an inscription was found carved into the stone. It is a dedication to Minerva by a certain Marcus Vibius, and it is considered one of the oldest Latin inscriptions in the whole Iberian Peninsula.
What you see on the tower today is a copy. The original is kept in the museum, to protect it from the weather.
Think about what this tower meant more than two thousand years ago. On t…
9
The City That Took Refuge Up High
You are in the Part Alta, between Carrer Major and Carrer de la Merceria. Notice the stone arcades: beneath them sat the cloth and haberdashery merchants, sheltered from rain and sun. They worked like a covered market at the foot of the cathedral.
After Rome, the city passed to the Visigoths and, in the eighth century, ended up on the frontier between the Christian and Muslim worlds. For almost four centuries Tarragona was all but deserted.
Recovery came in the twelfth century. Archbishop Oleguer received the city from the Count of Barcelona with the task of repopulating it. The new Tarragon…
10
The Citizens' Forum
You are on Carrer Lleida, in front of an enclosure of Roman columns between apartment blocks. This is the forum of the colony, the hub of the city's civic life. If the forum up the hill belonged to the province, this one belonged to the townspeople.
Here stood the basilica, where courts sat and deals were done, the curia of the town council and the city's temples. Look at the column bases of the basilica and the remains of the shops that opened onto the square.
Tarraco became a colony under the name Colonia Iulia Urbs Triumphalis Tarraco. The exact date is debated: it may have been under Jul…
11
The Theatre by the Port
You are beside the remains of the Roman theatre, a few steps from the port. What is left is modest compared with other theatres in Hispania: part of the lower seating, the orchestra and the stage foundations. But its story explains a lot about the city.
It was built under Augustus, at the end of the first century BC, next to the forum of the colony. It was the great prestige project of a city that had just hosted the emperor. It was adorned with statues of the imperial family, some of which survive in the museum.
A Roman theatre was not just entertainment. Performances were held at religious…
12
The Necropolis Beneath the Tobacco Factory
You are in front of the early Christian necropolis, beside the large building of the former Tabacalera. In 1923, while digging the foundations of that tobacco factory, workers began to find graves. And they kept on appearing.
It turned out to be one of the most important ancient Christian cemeteries in the western Mediterranean. Some two thousand burials were recorded, most from the third to the fifth centuries, near the Francolí river, on the outskirts of the Roman city.
There is a bit of everything: simple pits covered with roof tiles, amphorae reused as coffins for children, and carved ma…
How long does the "Tarragona: the Roman Capital of Hispania Living Beneath Its Houses" audio tour take?
It has about 21 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 4.46 km walking route (~1 h 5 min on foot). Plan roughly 1 h 30 min in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "The Balcony Where It All Began" (coordinates 41.1139, 1.2556). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open Tarragona and pick "Tarragona: the Roman Capital of Hispania Living Beneath Its Houses". No account required to start.
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