Rome's Spanish capital — an intact amphitheatre on the Mediterranean, Catalan food culture, and beaches the Romans legionnaires swam at
Tarragona (Roman Tarraco) was the capital of the largest province of the Roman Empire west of Rome — a city of 40,000 Romans with a 14,000-seat amphitheatre, a provincial forum, an aqueduct still partly standing, and a circus for chariot racing that ran under what is now the old town. The UNESCO World Heritage ensemble of Roman monuments here is one of the most intact outside Rome itself. Today the city pairs that imperial past with serious Catalan food culture — the romesco sauce was invented here, calcots (spring onion feasts) are a regional obsession, and the Serrallo fishing quarter serve…
Tarraco was established as a Roman base in 218 BCE during the Second Punic War and grew to become the capital of Hispania Citerior, the largest province of the Roman Empire. Julius Caesar, Augustus, and Hadrian all spent time here — Augustus wintered in Tarraco twice and it functioned as his de facto western capital. The city reached its peak under the Antonine emperors (2nd century CE) with a population of roughly 40,000. After the Visigoths sacked it in 476 CE it shrank to a modest medieval town, which preserved the Roman street grid underneath. Tarragona was retaken from the Moors in 1129…