The origins of Tarragona go back to the first presence of Rome in the Iberian Peninsula around 218 BC. The Roman city of Tarraco became the capital of the Hispania Citerior, one of the largest provinces of the Empire in the time of Augustus (27BC). From this moment Tarraco started having all the public amenities of an important city that 2000 years afterwards we still can see its walls, the oldest in the Iberian Peninsula; theatre, circus and amphitheatre for the spectacles, aqueducts to provide its inhabitants with water, big public baths for their leisure, etc. Due to its condition as a provincial capital a forum was built on its highest hill. It is considered the biggest square in the roman world.

Nevertheless the Roman offer is not the only one that the cultural capital of the south of Catalonia presents. During the whole year, the city also offers an intense cultural activity for all Kind of public: its cyles of spectacles, its main September Festivals considered as national interest, its Holy Week that has the highest prestige in Catalonia and the "Concurs de Castells" (Human Tower Contest) that is celebrated every other year in October.

We couldn't close this rapid insight into what Tarragona offers without including the richness of its gastronomy. A city with a clear Mediterranean culture always looks to the sea and you notice this in the character of its people, in its love of the sea and in its gastronomy that is specialized in the seafood caught by its local fishermen and also in those fruits of a typically Mediterranean land.

It is not a coincidence that Tarragona has one of the best viewpoints of the Mediterranean and also some of the best Spanish littoral beaches where any nautical or summer sport can be practised. For this reason, it is not strange for Tarragona to be the commercial capital of the south of Catalonia where everything can be found. Tarragona's commercial offer is very wide and varied as it corresponds to a receptive centre of high quality tourism.

Tàrraco Viva

The roman archaeological remains, monuments and museums of Tarragona The walls, the provincial forum (Praetorium), the circus, the amphitheatre, the colonial forum, the Ferreres aqueduct, the tower of the Scipios, El Médos Roman quarry, the national archaeological museum of Tarragona (Plaça del Rei), the Early-Christian Necropolis and the Diocesan museum.