Archeology

Baetulo was founded ex novo around 100 BC as one of the first colonies of Hispania Tarraconensis. But it was largely in the time of Augustus that it became a prosperous city on the Mediterranean coast, famous for its production and exportation of wine, as evidenced by the wine amphorae from Baetulo found throughout the Empire. Today, the remains on display of this Roman colony, which gave rise to the current Badalona, are some of the best preserved of Catalonia.
 
With the first official excavations, in the first third of the 20th century, the first finds began to appear. However, the museumisation of the city’s Roman heritage began in 1955, when the baths of Baetulo were discovered in a wonderfully preserved state. The Museum of Badalona was built on top of these baths and was opened in 1966.
 
After the reforms carried out in 2010, this premises displayed, in a circular route of over 3,000 m2, the baths (preserved in their entirety), the decumanus and cardo maximus, with a complex of houses (insulae) and shops (tabernae), as well as the remains of the sewers. The route takes in the permanent exhibition, which includes pieces such as the Tabula Hospitalis. The jewel of the Museum, however, measures just 28 cm high: it is the Venus de Badalona, one of the most important female representations from Catalonia. The sound effects, the lighting and the elements of historical reconstruction complete the space allowing visitors to immerse themselves in the world of ancient Baetulo.
 
Other elements from Roman Badalona that can be visited are the House of the Dolphins (with high-quality mosaics and remains of the original wall paintings), the Garden of Quintus Licinius (with the remains of a Roman swimming pool) and a stretch of 38 metres of water conduit with a barrel vault, which provided drinking water to the houses, the fountains and the baths. These demonstrate the heights of splendour the city had reached.

"Iulia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino”. This inscription on a tombstone in the Museu d'Història de Barcelona (Barcelona City History Museum) shows the full name the Romans gave the city when they founded it in the years 15-13 BC during the time of the Emperor Augustus and which would become what is now Barcelona. For centuries it was an important colony of the Laietània, who went on to play a more important role in the final period of antiquity.
 
Although much of Roman city remains hidden, numerous archaeological excavations continue to provide information about what life was like in Barcino. Nowadays, the various remains can been seen in museums.
 
A significant part of the colony is visible in the archaeological subsoil of the Museu d'Història de Barcelona, where evidence of its monuments and the everyday life of its inhabitants have also been preserved. It is complemented by the Domus Avinyó and Domus Sant Honorat, residential houses that belonged to important personages of Barcino.
 
In the central area of the Forum there was an imposing temple dedicated to Augustus, of which three columns are preserved in situ within the premises of the Centre Excursionista de Catalunya. Not very far away, in the current Pati Llimona, we find the monumental remains of the Porta de Mar (Door of the Sea) and the baths that were located on the outside of the maritime entrance.
 
Also significant are the necropolis such as that on the Plaça de la Vila de Madrid, which displays 85 funeral items, and the Drassanes Reials, where a mausoleum has been preserved. Both are found next to the roads that left Barcino.
 
Other remains of Roman Barcelona that can be seen are the fragments of the wall (both the original from the 1st century BC and those built over them in the 3rd century AD), some defensive towers, the remains of the cemetery that was used as a sewer and which surrounded the perimeter of the wall and some arches and arcades from one of the two aqueducts that supplied water to the city.
 
Outside the walls, Barcino had an extensive ager (farmlands) where various villas have been identified.

Since the first excavations in the 19th century, the significant archaeological heritage in the Pla de l'Estany has been revealed. And it is here that some of the most outstanding archaeological sites in Catalonia are found. The results of this work carried out in the region are brought together in the Banyoles Regional Archaeological Museum. Thus, it comes as no surprise that the Museum houses one of the most important collections of palaeontology and archaeology in Catalonia.

The Museum officially opened in 1943 and since then has been housed in the Gothic palace of Pia Almoina. From 2000 to 2009, the museum was refurbished, bringing it up-to-date with modern museum standards. Currently, the Banyoles Regional Archaeological Museum has three permanent exhibition rooms (the Palaeontology, Prehistory and History rooms) that allow you to take a tour from the upper Tertiary period until the 18th century.

In the Palaeontology room, highlights include fossils of large animals from the Tertiary period and the Quaternary periods, such as the skull of a saber-toothed tiger from the archaeological site at Incarcal. The Prehistory room gives pride of place to the Neanderthal jaw bone from Banyoles found in the Pla de la Formiga in 1887 and also displays several pieces from the Neolithic settlements of La Draga and the Caves of Serinyà.
 
The History room explains what the Pla de l’Estany was like through the finds made principally in the Iberian village of Mas Castell de Porqueres and the Roman villa of Vilauba. In terms of the Medieval-Modern period, the display focuses mainly on the old town of Banyoles.

Al segle X, una xarxa de torres de guaita va delimitar el comtat d’Osona, que després va estendre els seus dominis a Anoia i Segarra. De tots ells, la torre Manresana de Prats de Rei és la que ha resistit millor el pas del temps. Tant és així que també va ser una de les escenes de la Guerra de Successió espanyola.

Al seu voltant hi havia un castell medieval de frontera , del qual només resten els fonaments de les muralles i una sala. La Torre, reconstruïda al segle XII, és l’únic element del complex en bon estat que s’ha conservat.

I està molt ben reforçat. Construïda amb pedres de carreus, la torre Manresana està dividida en tres nivells i amb un gruix minvant de paret, que va des dels 215 cm a la base fins als 160 cm a la part superior. Una de les claus de la seva seguretat va ser que només es podia entrar per una porta situada a mig camí de la torre, a la qual s’accedia a través d’una escala elevada.

La terrassa, situada a 21 metres d'alçada , ofereix una àmplia panoràmica del comtat de l'Anoia. Per aquest motiu, el 1711 va ser l’escenari d’enfrontaments entre el bàndol austríac i els Borbons per controlar la zona de Calaf.

This ancient Andalusian military encampment was the original centre of Balaguer and is an extraordinary archaeological site that allows us to learn about the Islamic past of the town.

Its origin dates back to the mid-8th century, during the occupation of the Iberian Peninsula by the Arabs and Berbers who had arrived in 711 AD. They built a military camp here which would be used as a "base of operations" for the expeditions of conquest that left along the Segre River towards Europe.

Over time, its military use gradually changed to civilian use until it became a town (medina), which experienced the height of its splendour in the 11th century thanks to the agricultural and livestock resources. Researchers have discovered the remains of the buildings characteristic of the Islamic cities of this era: Mosque, aljama or Jewish quarter, the stately castle (suda), residential area, squares, the potters’ district, etc. With the subsequent Christian conquest (1105 AD) and the expulsion of the Muslim population, Pla d’Almatà returned to the military and agricultural uses, being converted into fields of vineyards and olive groves.

Since 1983, excavations have been carried out which have uncovered the urban network of the old medina. Currently, in the area you can visit the Archaeological Park, where they have excavated and created a museum of four houses and a part of the street, and you can see the remains of the old wall from the 8th century and several storage silos.

Between 75,000 and 40,000 years ago, the cliff of Capelló was a shelter for Neanderthals, an extinct species of hominid who were organised into small communities of hunter-gatherers. Thousands of years later, Abric Romaní revealed to archaeologists what life was like for a species who shared common evolutionary ancestry with modern man.

In terms of the number and the importance of the findings, Abric Romaní has become one of the principal Middle Palaeolithic sites on the Iberian Peninsula. Thanks to these discoveries, it is possible to reconstruct the modus vivendi of these communities and their interaction with the natural environment in which they lived.

In addition, Abric Romaní, which is still in the process of excavation, has, for the first time allowed us to determine (for Neanderthal groups) the occupation strategies, the structure of their dwellings, subsistence strategies, the technologies of fire and tools, etc. Notable among the remains recovered are scores of wooden objects (the largest collection in the world with such an ancient chronology), close to 200 fireplaces and numerous tools made of stone and bone that demonstrate some very technically advanced production systems.

Abric Romaní forms part of the NEAN-Capellades Prehistoric Park, which includes some 20 archaeological sites in total, and acts as a centre for the dissemination of prehistory and the promotion of cultural tourism.

Tarragona and its surrounding area retains important traces of the Roman influence in the Iberian Peninsula. The archaeological complex of Tarraco was declared a World Heritage Site in 2000: the urban development of the city, as well as the density and the quality of the remains, make it a universal and incomparable asset.

The archaeological complex includes several monuments from the 3rd century BC until the 6th century AD, which are very well preserved. All of these are characteristic of provincial capitals, as was ancient Tarraco. The walls are notable for being the oldest construction in the city and an example of military engineering. Of the forum, the large square in which much of public life was focused, a section of arcade of the Basilica and part of a street are preserved; the rest of the complex is still hidden beneath the footprints of the modern buildings.

The theatre was built in an area outside the walls, very close to the forum and, as was usual, made use of the slope of the land. The three elements that define a Roman Theatre have been partially preserved: cavea (or the tiered seating), orchestra and scaena (stage). In the circus, the space where the cart races were run, a good part of the vaults and some sections of terracing, the remains of the façade and the podium, can be seen today, as well as some of the monumental doors through which the building was accessed.

But without doubt, the amphitheatre is the most iconic of the Roman trail in the city, and completes the trilogy of theatrical buildings. The characteristic arena is present – where all the spectacles were performed - surrounded by the cavea to accommodate the public; the remains visible today in the arena are from the Basilica and the Romanesque church of Santa Maria del Miracle ( 12th century), built on the same spot where the popular Saints of Tarragona, Fructuós, Auguri and Eulogi, suffered martyrdom.

On the outskirts of the city, near the Francolí River, the Early-Christian Necropolis constitutes one of the most extensive and important burial areas of Tarraco: this exceptional cemetery is considered the largest and most important in the whole of the west of the Roman Empire, with more than 2,000 burials.

Around Tarraco we find other buildings of great importance such as the Ferreres Aqueduct (Devil's bridge), the Triumphal Arch of Barà, the mausoleum of Centcelles, the Mèdol quarry and the Villa of Els Munts, among others.

Founded as a military camp by Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio, Tarraco prospered both thanks to its coastal location and to its position in relation to the land routes to the interior of the peninsula. Thus, the city became a Roman colony, head of a conventus -a judicial demarcation - and capital of the province of Hispania Citerior and Tarraconensis.

Beyond speculations about whether the building was a mausoleum or a villa during the Roman era, the roman complex of Centcelles (Constantí) is unique for its 4th century mosaics. Exceptional architectural testament of the late-Roman period in Catalonia, since the year 2000, it has been included in the set of monuments of the ancient Tarraco which were declared a Unesco World Heritage Site.

The oldest remains of Centcelles are from a small rural building from the 2nd -1st Century BC, which later became a magnificent villa with a baths complex. The most notable area is the closed circular room with a dome where the mosaics are found. These are considered to be the oldest Christian-themed dome mosaics of the Roman world and are exceptional for their good state of preservation. They represent several scenes, organised into three areas: a hunt on the lower section, biblical scenes from the Old and the New Testament in the central part and figures of the four seasons at the top.

From the study of these mosaics and mural paintings, one could think that the villa was a mausoleum. Even so, its interpretation is still uncertain. The first hypothesis of the researchers suggested that the mosaics made reference to the tomb of Constant, son of the Emperor Constantine the Great. More recent researches, however, think that Centcelles was the late Roman villa of a notable person in the ecclesiastical or civil hierarchy.

The historical and monumental importance of the old Tarraco is reflected in the current Museu de Tarraco (Museum of Tarraco, MNAT), a reference centre for learning about life in this period. Formed during the first half of the 19th century, the MNAT is the oldest Museum in Catalonia within its field and its extensive collection masterfully illustrates the process of Romanisation of the Iberian Peninsula.

Located in a new building since 1960 in which a fragment of the wall has been preserved in situ underground. Among the most outstanding pieces recovered from ancient Tarraco, you can see part of a medallion (clipeus) with the representation of Jupiter-Ammon, the altar dedicated to the Numen of Augustuses (the divine power), a pedestal of a statue with an inscription dedicated to the genius of the Colonia of Tarraco, the statues of Bacchus, Hercules, Claudius and Minerva, the portrait of Nero Julius Caesar and the sarcophagi of the Lion and the Pedagogue.

Meriting their own chapter are the high-quality mosaics which are preserved in the Museum, such as the head of the Medusa -the best of those found in Tarraco- from the residential area of the city; one representing Euterpe, Muse of music, discovered in the Roman villa of Els Munts (Altafulla); the tombstone of Optimus, mosaic with inscription, found in the Early-Christian Necropolis in Tarragona; and the mosaic of the Fish which decorated a room of the Roman villa of Callípolis, in the municipality of Vila-seca.

Among the most extraordinary pieces at MNAT, is an articulated ivory doll found in the sarcophagus of a girl in the Necropolis of Tarraco and the bronze lamp decorated with a representation of a theatrical mask from the Roman villa of la Llosa.

In addition to the Archaeological Museum, MNAT manages the Necropolis of Tarraco, the Roman villa of Els Munts (Altafulla) and the Roman Complex of Centcelles (Constantí). It also includes the famous monuments of the Arch of Berà and the Tower of the Scipios – situated on the Via Augusta – as well as the Roman Theatre in the city. A complex of the highest order which has been a World Heritage Site since 2000 and which takes the visitor closer to a fundamental period in European history.

With 42 painted figures and 260 other images carved into the rock, La Roca dels Moros del Cogul, in Les Garrigues, is one of the most outstanding and best-conserved rock-art sites in Catalonia. Amongst the most outstanding scenes depicted are a hunting scene and a phallic dance, an exceptional representation of a ritual event, which lends credence to the idea of the cave being a place for religious practices.

This area of Les Garrigues has been inhabited continuously by humans since the Paleolithic period and the cave was used for about 5000 years as a place of worship. The last hunter-gatherers (8th - 5th millennium BC) left behind paintings known as Levantine art. Later, from the 5th- 2nd millennium BC, Neolithic groups covered up the reliefs in the rock to draw representations of their own beliefs (diverse representations that fall within the classification of schematic art ). Researchers have also identified later inscriptions from the Iberian and Roman periods, though many are illegible.