Archeology

This museum is the best homage of the city of Reus to one of its most well-known natives: the doctor and prehistorian Salvador Vilaseca Anguera (1896-1975). During his life, he gathered an extensive archaeological paleontological collection that is a unique testimony on the first cultures that inhabited the county of Baix Camp and its neighbouring territories.

The museum was inaugurated in 1984 at the Old Bank of Spain, a neoclassic building that stands out due to its corner in the form of a tower. Inside, the permanent exhibit shows materials that cover the lower Palaeolithic era to the Medieval Muslim occupation of this territory (the 8th century).

Even though the old Vilaseca collection is the basis of the archaeological content, it also has pieces from other origins such as deposits, donations or more recent excavations. During your tour of the museum, you can admire fossilized remains of animals from the Quaternary period coming from the Barranc de la Boella ravine (more than 500,000 years old), pieces from the Neolithic burial cave called Cau d’en Serra or a bronze buckle found in a burial site in Antigons.

One of the most well-known pieces is the representation of a young deer, engraved over a small plate of llicorella (fine slate) with a flint chisel. It is one of the most ancient (about 10,000 years old) and most beautiful examples of Prehistoric portable art found in our country.

What happened in Mataró since the era of the flamboyant city of Iluro? This is what the Mataró Museum explains at its headquarters. Their objective is to safeguard and spread the archaeological, natural and movable heritage linked to the capital of the county of El Maresme.

Its headquarters are in Can Serra, the old manor of Jeroni Serra Arnau, built in 1565 and with a Renaissance style. On the inside, you can see a permanent exhibit that runs a path from Iluro to now, through Medieval times and modernity. It is worth it to stop at two significant pieces from the city’s Roman past: the sculpture of Venus d’Iluro and the Portrait of Faustina Minor.

While going through the museum, you can see a small part of the foundation accompanied by models and audiovisual material. The museum’s collections are very diverse: archaeological materials, natural specimens, historical objects and a pictorial art collection including a series of engravings by Goya.

One of the extensions of the museum is the Archaeological Enclosure of Llauder Tower, a site with the remains of a Roman villa from the end of the 1st century B.C. Another one of their headquarters corresponds to another time of splendour for the city. It is the small nave of Can Marfà, a symbol of the industrial past of Mataró. It hosts a permanent exhibit which shows more than a century of objects connected with the industry of knitting, one of the most important collections in Europe in this speciality.

Also part of the Mataró Museum is the Ca l’Arenas art centre. It was born from the legacy of the artist Jordi Arenas Clavell in his native city and it especially focuses on local artistic activity. 

The Molí de les Tres Eres, the Mill of the Three Ages, formed part of a chain of three water powered flour mills that operated in Cambrils from the 14th century until the late 19th century. After being put to a variety of uses and after years of neglect, finally the old flour mill became the headquarters of the Museu d’Història de Cambrils (History of Cambrils Museum). It currently houses two permanent exhibitions that explain the development of the municipality.

The archaeological exhibition "Cambrils: the origins" takes a historic journey from prehistoric times to the late Roman period, through Neolithic Iberian and Roman objects that come from the various archaeological sites in the town. In particular, the Roman villa of La Llosa. Notable is a lapidary or carved stone with a representation of the adolescent god Bacchus and an oil lamp decorated with a mask, both from the 1st century AD.

Once the mill had been renovated in 2001, a permanent exhibition was opened in the milling room called "El Molí de les Tres Eres: testimoni viu del passat" (Mill of the Three Ages: living testimony of the past). Here, visitors can see the miller’s equipment and machinery and, once a week on the guided tour, the mill is put into operation. After more than 100 years, the mill has not only gone back to grinding wheat and flour, but has also become a living example of pre-industrial heritage.

Some experts swear that it was called Aquis Voconis. Others say that it was called Aquae Calidae. Regardless, the fact is that the current Caldes de Malavella became an important thermal bath resort with the Romanisation in the 1st century AD. Located close to the Via Augusta, many travellers stopped here to relax and benefit from the healing properties of the hot water (which emerges at 60 ° C). The town grew up around it.

The remains of the ancient Roman baths have been preserved as a testimony to this time, the excavation of which began in 1897-1902. The complex is composed of a central pool surrounded by rooms given over to curative treatments. There are three spaces at the back, which may have been bath tubs, where oils were applied.

The site is very well preserved. The mechanisms that operated the water can be seen almost intact! During the excavations, objects have been found such as a dog made of bronze and coins from various periods, which can be seen in the Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya-Girona (Girona branch of the Archaeology Museum of Catalonia).

The Romans soon realised the benefits of the hot water that flowed naturally into what is now Caldes de Montbui. Which is why they founded a spa resort here that, even today, remains an exceptional testament, with the baths located right in the heart of the town. They are the most well preserved in the Iberian Peninsula.
The restored section – where you can see a pool, 13.5 metres by 6.9 metres, made with opus signium and covered by a vault - is just one of the wings of the large thermal bathing facilities built in the Imperial era. The town of Aquae Calidae grew up around it (although there is controversy about whether this name refers to the current Caldes de Montbui or to Caldes de Malavella), which was a major power in the 1st century AD. The remains of villas have also been found, dotted around the outskirts.

After the Romans, the town of Caldes went into decline, although it remained populated into the Visigothic era. Thermal bathing was brought back in the 19th century, when Caldes de Montbui became the second spa resort in Spain.

Founded in 80-70 BC on a natural promontory, ancient Iluro (modern Mataró) was one of the most important Roman cities of the time, acting as an organisational centre for an extensive territory (almost the entire region of Maresme). Today, the majority of archaeological remains are preserved under the historic centre of Mataró and make up one of the most important Roman archaeological sites in Catalonia.

The main documented remains of this city, which eventually extended over 6 hectares, include sections of the wall and parts of the forum, several public buildings, urban and suburban necropolises, streets, houses, a large cistern, the market, and sewers and conduits of this city which went on to have 6 hectares of extension. A small part of these ruins can currently be seen today at ground level, within different buildings and squares.

The importance of ancient Iluro is reflected in the presence of such prominent public buildings and in the fact of having a complex defensive system that was used until the 5th century AD. During the time of Emperor Augustus the city experienced its moment of splendour and obtained the legal status of municipum. The various domus of the city are also testament to this prosperous past: of these, the Villa of the Capuchins, Villa of the Dolphins and, in particular, the Lauder Tower, are the most notable.

The latter was located on the outskirts of the city, right next to the Via Augusta. The remains of the residential area (pars urbana), and the area reserved for agricultural production have been preserved here. As usual, the rooms of the manor house were arranged around the atrium or entrance hall, and in the central part there was the impluvium, an area used for water storage. Equipped with thermal baths, the villa, in a good state of conservation, is richly decorated in mosaics with geometric and plant motifs.

When the ‘clos de la Torre’ in Badalona was developed in 1954, an exceptional discovery was found: the remains of the baths of the Roman town of Baetulo in an excellent state of conservation. In order to preserve the remains, the Museum of Badalona was built over the top of them. It was opened in 1966.

Since its refurbishment in 2010, going down to the basement of the Museum of Badalona gives access to a 3,400 m2 site with the remains of the Roman city. In addition to the baths, the remains of the cardo maximus and the decumanus maximus (with the corresponding drains), various shops (tabernae) and three housing complexes (insulae) can be seen. This is one of the most important and well preserved archaeological sites from the Roman era in Catalonia.

The permanent exhibition of the Museum tells the story of the first settlements witnessed in Badalona - prehistoric, iron age and Iberian - but it is the exhibits relating to Baetulo which stand out, among which are the hinge-posts of the city gate, the Vas de les Naus (Ship Vase) and the portrait of Agrippina.

The collection features an epigraphic document of great value, the Tabula Hospitalis, a bronze tablet that records a hospitality agreement from 98 AD between the baetulonenses and Quintus Licinius Silvanus Granianus, governor of the city. Another jewel of the exhibition is the Venus of Badalona, one of the most important representations of the female form in Catalonia. These pieces were returned to Badalona in 1980, having been looted during the Civil War.

Apart from the main building, the Museum has various extension sites: the Roman archaeological sites of the Casa dels Dofins and the Garden of Quintus Licinius, the Turó d'en Boscà (a walled Iberian settlement), and the Can Miravitges estate (an 18th century agricultural manor house).

In 1882, when the Romanesque castle of Montcada in the old town of Vic was demolished, the remains of a Roman temple appeared among the ruins. This was the ancient Roman temple of Ausa which had been preserved in excellent condition. The building dates from the 2nd century, after the Roman conquest of Hispania. The reconstruction lasted for 77 years (1883-1959), but it is currently one of only two Roman temples throughout Spain to have been preserved practically complete.

The temple, built on a podium, consists of a cella (small chamber) and an atrium with 8 columns. Two of the walls of the cella were found almost intact. A capital, a section of the shaft of the column and the original fragments of the pediment were found amongst the rubble which allowed the exterior of the monument to be reconstructed.

The castle which occupied the temple area was built in 897 by Guifré el Pilós (Wilfred the Hairy) and, from the 11th century, was the property and residence of the Montcada family who reused the four walls of the temple to construct the castle’s central courtyard. Afterwards, the building was used as a residence of the veguer (feudal administrator), headquarters of the Royal Curia, the city’s granary and, finally, a prison and quarry. By the 19th century, it had lost its fortified appearance completely and had been converted into a rather forbidding mansion. Still preserved today are part of the vaults and walls of the north and west sections of the castle.

From history and ethnography to geography and the economy, also taking in the ecology. The Museu de les Terres de l'Ebre (Museum of the Lands of the Ebro in Amposta) gives a cross-sectional view of the Ebro delta region. Visitors can learn about the Ilercavones, learn different ways of fishing, even see a ‘llagut’ up close, the most characteristic river boat.

It was created in 2011, as an expansion and updating of the previous Museu Comarcal del Montsià (Montsià County Museum). It occupies the old modernista building of the Miquel Granell state school, which has been converted to meet the needs of a modern and thought-provoking museum project. The museum conserves and manages one of the most important collections of nature, archaeology and ethnology in the Terres de l'Ebre region made up of more than 35,000 objects, among which the Falcata stands out, an Iberian sword that forms part of the set of urns and artefacts from the Iberian necropolis of Mianes (Santa Barbara).

The permanent exhibition "The lands of the Ebro: from prehistory to the middle ages" takes a tour through the history of the banks of the lower Ebro, starting from the archaeological remains found in the area. The second room, "Ebro: the water road" focuses on the influence of the most important river on the Iberian Peninsula on history and the collective identity, and reflects on what the future of the territory will be like.

On the museum’s website, various archaeological items can be viewed in 3D.

The museum will head up the network "Ebro nature & culture" which brings together museums, interpretation centres, archaeological sites and monuments in the different municipalities of the Ebro.

The dolmen of Cova d'en Daina (Daina’s Cave) in Romanya de la Selva, is one of the most complete and best preserved megaliths in Catalonia. It is also noted for being one of the most representative funeral monuments of its type, known as a "Catalan gallery" or "wide corridor" grave.

Dating from between 2700 - 2200 BCE, in the Neolithic period, it consists of a covered gallery, 7 metres in length, in a U-shape, built with granite slabs. Originally, it would have incorporated a circular tumulus and cromlech (a structure formed by stones or menhirs affixed in the ground in a circular or elliptical shape).

These types of "Catalan gallery" tombs are typical of the late Neolithic period and are the result of the evolution of the "corridor graves". They are formed by a geometric chamber where the human remains and grave goods were deposited and a corridor almost the same width as the chamber.

The Cova d'en Daina was excavated for the first time in the nineteenth century and a large number of very fragmented bones and the teeth of many adults and children were found, the result of successive collective burials. In addition, flint tools, pottery fragments and some ornaments (necklaces and small pieces of slate and gold) were discovered.