History
For the Roman history of Tarragona, see the main article: Tarraco
In 218 BC the Romans conquered the Iberian city and made it the capital of the province of Hispania citerior, later Tarraconensis, under the name of Tarraco. In 27 BC they built a temple in honor of Augustus and Jupiter.
In Tarragona there are many Roman monuments: the amphitheater, the Circus, the Roman Forum, the funerary monument Torre dels Escipions, the Arc de Berà triumphal arch, the mausoleum of Centcelles and the aqueduct bridge Aqüeducte de les Ferreres (also called Pont del Diable). In 2000, the archaeological ensemble of Tarraco was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. During current construction works, remains of ancient Roman buildings are discovered again and again. At the request of the archaeologists, the construction work is often interrupted, to the annoyance of the builders.
The Passeig Arqueològic (Archaeological Promenade) runs along the city wall, which according to the Roman historians Livius and Pliny dates back to the Scipions in the 3rd century B.C., but according to other views may be older because of the cyclopean stone blocks of several tons, which were joined together without joints. The Museu Arqueològic displays Roman exhibits, which include mosaics worth seeing, especially a Medusa head. Next to the museum is the Roman Praetorium from the 1st century BC, which had a square shape here and was subject to violent changes in the Middle Ages. The amphitheater is located directly on the coast and was the scene of the martyrdom of the bishop Fructuosus and the deacons Augurius and Eulogius during the Valerian persecution of Christians. In late antiquity Tarragona was an important episcopal see.
In 476, after the fall of Rome and the decline of the Western Roman Empire, Tarragona was occupied rather than conquered by the Visigoths under their king Eurich. The Visigoths took over the urban structures and provided a thin upper class. The end of the conditions inherited from antiquity came with the arrival of the Moors; around 716 al-Hurr conquered the city. The city lay in ruins thereafter and was largely uninhabited until the Reconquista in the 12th century.
In 1118, Raimund Berengar III conquered Tarragona, having already extended his domain to the gates of the abandoned city, and rebuilt it as the headquarters of the Church in Catalonia (previously the Catalans had been ecclesiastically dependent on the archbishopric of Narbonne). In the process, the still preserved Roman city walls were repaired.
During the Napoleonic Wars on the Iberian Peninsula, Tarragona was besieged and finally stormed from May 3 to June 28, 1811 (Siege of Tarragona).