A Roman forum lost in the hustle and bustle

A rather unassuming, smallish site, completely surrounded by housing (some of which rather delapidated) and buried away in the modern city centre far from the romantic Parte Alta of Tarragona, the Colonial Forum in C/Lleida is in fact a place you shouldn´t judge by its cover. This place has seen almost as much history as the city walls of Tarraco, the oldest slice of history still remaining in the city of Tarragona.
Located in what used to be the residential part of Tarraco, halfway between the grand public spaces in the Parte Alta and the port, this was the civic centre of city dwellers: a large porticoed square of over 10,000m², above street level, surrounded by public buildings (city council meeting hall - the curia -, administrative offices, courtrooms, temple) and arcades with shops and near the city theatre which is located just outside the long-gone southern city walls on a natural slope.

This was Tarraco´s first and oldest centre of business, justice, politics and amusement dating back to the 2nd century BC, when the upper part of Tarraco was a military bastion. And even when in the 1st century AD Tarraco´s acropolis - with its circus, provincial forum and imperial temple - was being constructed, this site remained the centre of local affairs, dealing with the business of the city and its immediate hinterland. So, in a way, the odd juxtaposition between the Roman ruins and the hustle and bustle of downtown Tarragona - close also to the current-day Central Market of the city - is perhaps rather fitting. The most significant remnant of the Colonial Forum (or, Local Forum) are the ruins of the basilica, the seat of the courthouse. The impressive forum plaza would have extended southwards, all the way down to the current-day C/Caputxins. Remnants have been dug up beneath the present-day C/Gasòmetre and there is still much to be discovered about this forum. A large number of statues and busts of gods, emperors (like the one of Lucius Verus on the left) and the city elite were dug up in and around the Local Forum and are now on display in the Archeological Museum (MNAT).

The temple of the Forum plaza is believed to have been dedicated to the Capitoline Triad - Jupiter, Juno and Minerva - and then, from the 1st century AD, to the imperial cult. Only the foundations of this temple have been found. In the recent edition of Tarraco Viva, Tarragona´s Roman festival, a re-enactment of the inauguration of a high priest of Jupiter (the ´Flamen Dialis´) took place on this very spot. Next to the temple area there is a well-preserved stretch of a paved Roman street and perpendicular streets, with a sewer running below it and the foundations of a number of houses and water cisterns lying alongside. Confronted by the picturesque majesty and sheer ancientness of these ruins, it is actually not so hard to imagine merchants, judges, politicians, entertainers, worshippers, shoppers and criminals, all on their way to the forum over 2000 years ago.