The truth is that the visit of the Roman Tarragona allows you to imagine what Tarraco was like and get the sensation of strolling through the streets and monuments of the time.
Here are some tips you should keep in mind to get to know it for yourself.
If you prefer, here you can sign up for a guided tour of the Roman Tarragona.
Model of Tarraco
The best way to start the visit of the ancient Tarraco is to go directly to the seat of the old Audience (Pallol Square 3), a building that now houses a cultural center, and where you will be able to see a very didactic model of the Roman city.
Pallol door in the Roman wall of Tarragona
If you go by car you should leave the vehicle in the Saavedra car park, because there are the walls where you will do the so-called Archaeological Walk, and the door of Pallol that gives you access to the interior of the ancient Roman city.
The aforementioned model of Tarraco shows you how the city was distributed on different levels on a hill, with the Provincial Forum area dedicated to government buildings and the big circus at its feet.
I also tell you that this corner of Plaza de Pallol is one of the most beautiful in the old town.
With the image of the model in your mind, during the whole visit to the historic centre of Tarragona you will try to recognise the different corners of the ancient Roman city.
Roman walls of Tarragona
From here you start your visit by going out again from the old city and walking around the exterior of a part of the old wall along the aforementioned Archaeological Walkway.
Archaeological walk of the Roman walls of Tarragona
The wall of Tarraco was 3.5 kilometres long, and there are still some stretches of a little more than one kilometre long which partly surround the old town of Tarragona.
In this section that you visit of the original Roman wall you will see some blocks of megalithic origin, as well as three towers of the same one.
You will even be able to see some stone with the Iberian alphabet markings and you will also notice that in a good part of the section of the wall windows of houses will be opened, which were made by the residents of these houses throughout the centuries.
The Archaeological Walk is one of the venues of the MHT Tarragona History Museum, and the price of the visit is 3.30 euros.
Tarragona Cathedral
You will enter the old town again through the Puerta de San Antonio, from the 18th century, and you will arrive at the area that in Roman times occupied the Provincial Forum, which extended into two squares of different heights.
Tarragona Cathedral
In the upper square, which was the worship area, was the Roman Temple, now occupied by the cathedral of Tarragona.
In fact, still in the cloister of the mentioned cathedral you can find some remains of this place of worship.
For its part, the current cathedral of Tarragona that you can visit was built in the twelfth century with a style of transition from Romanesque to Gothic.