Clerks, Dominicans, wheat and water

The archeological zone around the Plaza Pallol has a number of things to offer, the most interesting being Ca l´Agapito, once a Dominican convent and school. One of Ca l´Agapito´s later incarnations was as a government storehouse for wheat, hence the name of the square (this is the meaning of the word ´Pallol´ in Catalan). But below this building´s tranquil medieval exterior lies - as so often in Tarragona - an even older, Roman past. The part of the building that is open to the public is referred to as the ´Volta del Pallol´ and is a wonderfully preserved part of a gallery of the Provincial Forum, the centre of government power and the central piece in Tarraco´s acropolis. Centre stage in this gallery is a huge scale model of 2nd-century Tarraco, which is your best way of making sense of the layout of Tarraco...and of making sense of the location of the ´Volta del Pallol´, just next to the now disappeared south-western tower of the Provincial Forum (remnants of the Forum tower, however, can be found in the building across the Plaza Pallol, the so-called Antiga Audiencia, nowadays a cultural centre), the tower on the south-eastern corner of this immense rectangular square being the Praetorian Tower on Plaza del Rei.

Waiting to be opened to the public are two other archeological jewels. First, the interior patio of this former Dominican convent which contains significant and precious stretches of the perimeter wall that closed off the Provincial Forum. And secondly, a recent archeological discovery. Archeologists have dug up below the ´Volta del Pallol´ and the Plaza del Pallol what seems to be part of the network of underground vaults that surrounded the Provincial Forum and served to support the portico, as well as allowing clerks, scribes and others working in the Forum direct and quick access from the exterior onto the Forum. The vault uncovered - which after the Romans was used as a cistern - is 14 metres long.

Catalonia´s greatest subterranean lake

Under the city of Tarragona lies a huge (3-kilometre long) cave with enormous halls, labyrinths, clear water and a gallery excavated by man. An extensive and complex subterranean cave and cavern system carved by groundwater that make it the greatest underwater lake in Catalonia. The construction of an underground parking in C/Gasòmetre, 32 in 1996 brought this speleological miracle to light. In pre-Roman times and in republican-era Tarraco, the cave was one of the city´s principal water resources. The discovery of the subterranean lake - some 13 metres below the surface of the old Roman city and with its epicentre below the Colonial Forum - has helped to make more sense of the remnants of Roman-era and medieval public fountains and wells that had been uncovered (and continue to be uncovered) by archeologists in the lower half of the city. Explorations of the cave are still ongoing to find out its full extent and whether there is a connection with galleries that have been discovered and mapped in the vicinity of the imperial public bath complex (along C/Sant Miquel) and of the Chartreuse factory - an old liqueur-producing factory set up in the early 1900s by French Carthusian monks. SIET, the Society of Speleological Investigations of Tarragona offers tours of the cave with officially certified speleologists. Below is a video of one of their expeditions.

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.

The Iberian Acropolis

As the capital and biggest city of Hispania Citerior and as a model city for subsequent capital cities established by Rome, Tarraco was endowed with major public buildings. The centre of government power was the Provincial Forum which began to be constructed ca. 70 AD, under the Flavian dynasty, on an artificial terrace between the imperial temple (where one can now find the cathedral) and the circus (which was constructed some years later on the lowest terrace in the upper part of the city). The seat of the Concilium Provinciae Hispaniae Citerioris, to use its proper Latin name, was a huge rectangular square lined, on three sides, by a portico raised on a podium, a series of galleries – some underground – and two towers on its southern corners that allowed people access to the galleries as well as connecting with the circus. The entire complex of the Parte Alta – Provincial Forum, imperial temple and circus – is without parallel in terms of size in the entire Roman world: 7.5 hectares or the size of seven football pitches! This was the acropolis, the centre of what was then the biggest (and an extremely important) province of the Roman Empire. Architectural and iconographic models were imported directly from Rome and even the emperor´s own craftsmen are said to have been put to work on beautifying the plaza.
The tower on the south-eastern corner, the so-called Praetorian Tower on Plaza del Rei, is the most formidable remnant of the Provincial Forum (see pictures). In the Middle Ages the Praetorium was rebuilt, with a second floor being added, to serve as a castle and residence of royalty. By then much of the rest of the Provincial Forum buildings had already been destroyed or dismantled and what was left was integrated into the houses and residences that have since the Middle Ages been constructed on this site. At the top of the Praetorian Tower, giving you the best panoramic view of the city and the Mediterranean, you can see the end result.
Probably the easiest way the understand the layout of Tarraco and at the same time visit another well-preserved Forum gallery is to study the incredibly detailed scale model of 2nd-century Tarraco in the ´Volta del Pallol´ on the Plaza del Pallol. The Volta del Pallol is part of a building called Ca l´Agapito (as is the case so often, the ground floor is Roman but the higher floors are medieval). The other most visible remains of the Provincial Forum, its north-eastern corner, are on the Plaza del Forum. The main street of the old part of the city, the Calle Major – medieval in origin – was superimposed upon the grand, central processional road that ran across the Provincial Forum up to the site of the imperial cult. A road which began all the way down at the port, ran across the lower (residential) part of Tarraco to connect via the circus with the Provincial Forum. The Roman city of Tarraco was a demonstration of the Roman wonders of city planning, architecture, engineering, craftsmanship and politics.

The virtual reality of Tarraco

A three-part, Spanish-language documentary (21 minutes) on Roman Tarraco which offers a virtual trip through the city and its major monuments (the aqueduct, the fortifications, the theatre, the circus, the amphitheatre, the provincial and colonial forums, the Via Augusta, the triumphal arch of Barà, the tower of the Scipios). An illuminating introduction for anyone keen on making sense of the Roman remains of Tarragona. As always with virtual recreations, there is a great dosis of hypothesis and speculation based on the findings of other Roman cities, with Pompey of course being the greatest fountain of our knowledge of the urbs romana. Technology as a true eductional tool, not as a gimmick. This is the first part; for the second and third parts just click on at the end of the first piece.