Tarragona, the Beautiful City -- October 2014

Mainly written by Julianne with photos from Nancy following the text

Stunning. 

Amazing.

We are wandering around goggle-eyed.

How has this place remained so beautiful?

Tarragona has been our home for nearly 2 weeks.  We are south of Barcelona about an hour by train, along the Mediterranean coast.  I chose this place with little knowledge because there are Roman ruins and good bird-watching near by. As with much of what we are doing, we make the basic arrangements and find out what it is like after arrival. We had NO idea how great this would be.

Tarragona was the capital of Roman Hispania for several hundred years.  The people here were actual citizens of Rome--we are finally IN the empire rather than touching the edges as in England and Holland.  Rome struggled against and finally subdued the Carthagenians who headquartered in Cartegena further down the coast.  Augustus, one of my favorite emperors, based his campaign to control the interior in this very city, and wintered here in 25 BC.  (Nancy reminds me that all the Roman emperors were blood-thirsty brutes and none can be a favorite. Good point.)  After Rome had full control, this remained one of their major ports and their administrative capital for Hispania. The population over time rose to about 40,000 people, showing one of the benefits of the Pax Romana. And here we are to enjoy what is left behind.

Our darling apartment is inside the Roman wall close to the Portal del Roser, an entry through the wall used from Roman times to the present.  The gate and wall are quite complete and still standing much restored by UNESCO recently.  The wall continues in a deep horseshoe northeast up and around the end of the city, then southwest to another portal and a tower close to the cliffy step-down to the sea.  Roman arches, stairs, other bits are all over the place.  Several quite complete buildings--forum, racetrack, amphitheatre. UNESCO has done a good job for us all by assisting in preservation and restoration since 2000. Lucky us--the place is both old and fixed up to modern standards.  There are other tourists but not that many since it is October.

Other than the Roman Empire, my other great historical love is the Middle Ages. This area was strong-ish at that time, too, as a headquarters for the church of the area.  The Roman buildings were re-purposed for churches, schools and convents with a fine cathedral built over the Roman temple area.  The cathedral has some excellent medieval statuary including altarpieces and statuary from the general diocesan area from as early as the 11th C.  I loved that section of the Prado but this rivals it in quality.  The church was built beginning in the 1100’s after the Arabs were defeated in this area and shows the early Romanesque arches and the later Gothic additions.  Construction and refinement came to a screeching halt with the Black Death when the population fell from 8000 to 2000.  

Now, how did it happen that all the Roman and Medieval touches have remained relatively intact?  In several locations there are the original water fountains which served as the city water supply from those eras.  Much of the housing and other buildings have remained more or less as they were when built in the Middle Ages, with adaptations as needed.  Here in the Part Alta (Old Town) buildings like our home have retained their early structures with modern plumbing and electricity added.  

Somehow Tarragona retained its Roman and Medieval nature, while many other places (London and Paris come to mind) have been have been built over, torn down, and built over again so that few traces of the past emerge to view. The history websites do not explain this but I am fascinated.

There is a modern Tarragona too, of course.  This is a city of 100,000 with industry, a busy port and modern housing developments spreading out all around.  But the old structures and spaces I am enjoying so much have continued to be used without being destroyed.  Our good luck.  Our further good luck was finding this darling apartment, thanks to Air BnB.

So I am mulling this over.  When the barbarians reached this area as the Empire fell apart, Visigoths took control of Tarragona.  They destroyed much but were not as destructive as the Vandals who leveled Carthage, for example.  They ran a fairly peaceful and stable administration here for several hundred years and had become Christian, as had Rome by then. They were not big builders but probably used the existing buildings. Under the Arabs, Al Andulus, the centers of activity were elsewhere, such as Cadiz and Grenada.  So I imagine this as a nice provincial town under both regimes. There is little visible from either group--one Arab-style arch is displayed in the cathedral museum noting that it was imported to Tarragona from further south during the Arab period.

Tarragona, with the rest of Catalan, was conquered from the Arabs by Charlemagne quite early and was held by him and later Holy Roman emperors as a buffer zone between Christians and Arabs. Although Tarragona gained status as an archdiocese, the civil administration was in Barcelona, which developed and became the important city of the area. Ports, military, civil administration--all passed Tarragona by. Only the church put much effort into the town and that is reflected in the cathedral, former convents and seminaries. Some of the very early medieval statues in the cathedral museum are from the 11 century as Christians tried to re-establish their religion in the area.

There we are--a backwater, provincial town. Important enough to maintain as a city but not so important that everything needed to be built over, knocked down and built again in the High Middle Ages, Renaissance or even later. Sitting here, just waiting for UNESCO, the current Spanish government’s interest in tourism and the current era of appreciation for the art and architecture of earlier times.  We do not find such circumstances everywhere and it is our good luck to have landed here.  

Now, we are wrapping up a delightful stay here and getting ready to take a ferry to Italy.  I had some good birdwatching in the Ebro and Llobregat Deltas and El Garraf National Park. Nancy had enough time to paint and draw. We are rested and ready for the next step--a ferry ride to Italy.

And from Nancy:

Below, a few of the hundreds of photos of Tarragona that I couldn't stop myself from taking. Where do you start, trying to pick one picture to represent Tarragona? Not possible. These first few are from our initial walkabout, when we could hardly believe our eyes.

 Col Civaderia

 View from Via Augusta, with Roman Amphitheater below

 Col Jueu, the medieval entry to the Jewish quarter

 Col Civaderia

Col L'Enra Jolat

The Roman Wall. 

This standard sculpture of Romulus and Remus, a copy of which probably would have stood somewhere in the city when it was Roman. This one actually is a recent gift of Italy to Spain, and stands on the Roman wall close to our apartment.

Above, a shot of the reconstituted Roman Wall, showing how it snugs up to the medieval cathedral, which was built on the spot of the earlier Roman temple, which it seems was dedicated to deifying Augustus

Here is a map of the area currently enclosed by the old Roman Wall, which is only part of the original Roman wall that used to extend down to the waterfront some distance from this rendering. Portal del Roser is at #1. Red is for current streets and public squares, blue is the built areas, and white shows the Roman temple and forum area, with the bottom irregular oval being the circus race-course. Except for the cathedral and religious buildings, the built-up areas are probably 15th century or later. My finger is pointing to the location of our apartment.

Here's our home in Tarragona:

Here, the unfinished facade of Tarragona Cathedral, with no towers and no decoration above the rose window. This was a Fair day in the church plaza, note flags etc.

Below: signs of wealth in the carvings in the Tarragona Cathedral

made between the 11th and14th centuries

 

And, signs of the old history of Tarragona writ in stone:

 Roman fountain still in use, with "new" taps I think

 Early wall with arches filled in to make it solid

See these 12th century Gothic arches built within an earlier Romanesque arch.

Here now are some pictures that I just like for the visuals. Ah, Tarragona!

Roman method of making arches - build a wooden form, pour concrete and rubble over it, remove the form. These arches are original, though the floors are new

I could go on and on and on, but I'll spare you my garrulous desire to show you more and more pictures, as well as all the intricate details that go along with each picture. Coming to Tarragona isn't hard, in fact it's easy and less expensive than many places in Europe. So I'm hoping you're encouraged to add it to your bucket list, and swing by.

by Nancy