The tempting tale of a hidden hippodrome

Tarraco´s circus, built in the late 1st century, was located right in the middle of the city – very unusual for a building of this kind – between the Via Augusta and the Provincial Forum. From the late 5th century onwards the hippodrome was abandoned and over the next centuries the 325-metre-long and 115-metre-wide arena and ascending tiers of seating disappeared under layers of housing. The only open space remaining – a quarter of the entire circus arena – was a small plaza, now known as the Plaça de la Font, the commercial nerve centre of medieval Tarragona and home now to the city council, cafés, restaurants and terraces. The recovery process only started in the 1990s. A part of the southern facade of the circus survived as part of a new defensive wall constructed in the 14th century. The stands, stairways and upper platforms have been exposed in a number of places, sometimes to a height of 7 metres, as between C/ Enrajolat and C/ Trinquet Vell and on the Plaça Sedassos, but much more lies below housing. Those in the south-western section are best preserved and are visitable, as is part of the northern vault (see picture) which also functioned as an internal passageway leading spectators from one end of the building to the other. These monumental Roman circuses have generally not weathered well, with very little remaining even of the most famous one, the Circus Maximus of Rome. Despite so much having been destroyed, the circus-complex of Tarraco is exceptionally well preserved and certainly the best preserved one in Spain. Because the area is largely covered by housing, it´s true that you don´t get a sense of space which you will get in the ruins of circuses located outside the city walls or now lying in city parks (e.g. the Circus Maximus of Mérida), but what you will get, by contrast, - and this is rare – is lots of evidence of the circus´ architectural structures, not just at street level but also in several shops, restaurants and even in a bank (about which more another time!).