The origin of the Provincial Historical Archive of Tarragona (AHT) dates back to the Second Republic, with the appearance of the Decree for the creation of the provincial historical archives, on November 12, 1931. The Republican Government's project stated that the planned centers should only house notarial historical documentation. However, the outbreak of the Civil War, in 1936, stopped the initiative. On January 21, 1939, the new regime legislated again in this direction and created the Decree for the creation of the historical archives of protocols. In 1944, the Provincial Historical Archive of Tarragona was definitively established, to record the protocols of various notarial districts in Tarragona, to which was added documentation from the Municipal Historical Archive of Tarragona up to 1799.

In 1981, due to the transfer of powers from the State to the Government of Catalonia (Generalitat de Catalunya), the Department of Culture assumed the management of this archive, along with that of the provincial historical archives of Girona and Lleida. Furthermore, as established by Law 10/2001, of 13 July, on archives and document management, the AHT is part of the Network of Regional Archives of the Generalitat de Catalunya and acts as the Regional Archive of Tarragonès.

The archive currently holds 183 documentary collections, including collections. They come, in large part, from the peripheral administration of the State. The Civil Government funds stand out - with the important series of associations of all the municipalities of Tarragona (1849-1982); the Provincial Delegation of Finance, of considerable volume; the Territorial Management of the Cadastre, with an interesting collection of 4,769 paperback parcel plans, or cadastres of 130 municipalities from the years 1927-1960.

The capacity of the AHT is 5,400 linear m of shelving distributed over seven floors of documentary storage, to which must be added 1,900 linear m of auxiliary storage.