Man has always needed to express his concerns and thoughts. When writing did not exist, artistic expression was the perfect resource to convey these ideas. The set of Rock Art of the Mediterranean basin on the Iberian peninsula consists of 757 sites with paintings, and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1998. This is the largest set of rock art sites in Europe. In Catalonia there are the hermitage shelters of the Serra de la Pietat (Ulldecona), Roca dels Moros (Montsià) and the Cave of Vilasos or Els Vilars (Os de Balaguer), among others.
The humans who inhabited the coastal and interior mountains of Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia, Castile-La Mancha, Murcia and Andalusia chose shallow caves and shelters in which to paint and engrave symbols and scenes from their daily life. In every way, the decorated walls also raise many questions about their beliefs, organisation and other aspects which are difficult to understand.
The paintings of the Mediterranean basin were made from the late Palaeolithic period up to the bronze or the iron age. Classified as Levantine art, they express ideas that until that point had been non-existent: man showing his relationship to his environment, the links with nature, beliefs and, at the same time, expressing his power and intervention in the environment in which he lives.
The creators of the cave paintings used different techniques and colours, creating various styles that scholars have classified as naturalist, schematic and macro-schematic. These last two were imposed in the final phase, and tend towards an increasingly accentuated stylisation of the expressions and by an increasing prominence of signs and symbols. The most widely used colour is red, in all its varied tones.
The Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya (MAC) is organised around its 6 regional centres (Barcelona, CASC, Empúries, Girona, Olèrdola and Ullastret). Of them all, Barcelona is the centre that offers a more cross-cutting view because it explains the social, technological, economic, and religious developments from early man up to the middle ages in Catalonia and the Mediterranean.
Located in the former Pavelló d'Arts Gràfiques, (Graphic Arts Pavilion), built for the 1929 Universal Exposition of Barcelona, the MAC Barcelona renovated 11 rooms between 2010 and 2013. The permanent exhibition, consisting of more than one million original pieces, takes the visitor on a journey through pre-history, protohistory, the Greek and Phoenician colonisation and the establishment of the Roman Empire.
To accompany the visitor, there are learning resources, pictures, scenery and also audiovisual pieces such as the funeral rituals of prehistoric times compared with those of today.
One of the most emblematic pieces of the museum is the statue of the Roman God Aesculapius, now a reproduction because the original was moved to the Empúries centre in 2008. Other notable exhibits include the Paleolithic materials, the 53,200 year-old Neanderthal jaw from Sitges, the Iberian treasure of Tivissa, the Phoenician votive figures, Greek ceramics and the Roman statue found in the street Carrer Paradís, and considered to be the highest quality sculpture recovered from ancient Barcino, the Roman name for Barcelona.
The Monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes stands on one of the peaks of the Serra de Rodes, a mountain range right by the sea in the north of Alt Empordà. It is one of the many testimonials of Catalan Romanesque architecture, but it may also be one of the most architecturally sophisticated.
From the 11th to the 14th century it was the main spiritual centre of the county of Empúries and its splendor can be seen in the large dimensions of the monastic complex. This comprises the church, the bell tower, the cloister, the sacristies, the conventional rooms for everyday living and the Palau de l’Abat (the Abbot's Palace).
The monastery is built in terraces in order to adapt to the terrain and the various buildings are arranged around the cloister and the church, built between the 10th and 11th centuries. In these two buildings you can see an exceptional example of Romanesque sculpture: the columns (original) and the capitals that crown them tell us about the classical influence that has marked this unique church.
On the outside, the ‘portalada’, designed by the Mestre de Cabestany, showed different scenes from the life of Christ carved in white marble. The scarce fragments that remain, give us a sample of their extraordinary quality, probably one of the best of its time.
From the monastery you can enjoy one of the best views of Cap de Creus. Shortly before reaching it, you will see the ruins of the medieval village of Santa Creu de Rodes, the most notable of these being the Church of Santa Helena de Rodes.
The Born Cultural Centre in Barcelona is a benchmark facility for Europe: it is both a historical site, the core of the collective Catalan memory and a modern cultural centre.
As a historical site, the old market of Born (1876) was the first large building using iron architecture in the city, demonstrating its prominent role as a European metropolis during the 19th century.
With regard to the historical memory, in the subsoil of the market an exceptional archaeological site, both for its state of conservation and for its dimensions, is preserved. Contemplating the remains of 42 streets and 60 houses that were part of the Barri de la Ribera (the Ribera neighbourhood) you can explore the history of Barcelona and Catalonia, from the Roman era until the early eighteenth century.
The stones speak to us especially of the outcome of the War of Succession for the city, which resisted the siege by Felip V's troops up to the capitulation on 11th September 1714. As a result, the centre of the Born was destroyed in order to build the military stronghold of the Ciutadella.
After years of excavation work, restoration and exhibits, this location has been converted into a cultural centre. Opened in 2014, it acts as an interpretation centre for the War of the Spanish Succession, and at the same time offers a programme that includes literary, musical, and theatrical activities.
Perched in the Puig de Sant Andreu, in the Baix Empordà, the Iberian town of Ullastret is the largest Iberian settlement discovered so far in Catalonia. The city, flanked by towering walls, served as the capital of all the indiketa territory, which exploited agriculture, livestock farming, mines and quarries. It was the centre of an important commercial interchange with the Greek city of Empúries, which exported its products and also imported foreign production. Ullastret dominates the landscape of the Empordà and has been testimony to one of the most important archaeological finds of recent years: that of the severed heads of Ullastret.
This exceptional discovery was made in the year 2012, when the excavations in a stretch of the street uncovered 15 human cranial fragments, among which were two embedded heads. It is a ritual of Celtic origin which had already been described by classical authors such as Posidonius of Apamea or Diodorus of Sicily, and which consisted of displaying the heads of the defeated enemy as trophies of war.
Although the Ullastret complex consists of two Iberian villages, it is only the ruins of Puig de Sant Andreu, which are visitable, corresponding to the last stage of occupation of the town by the indiketes (3rd century BC). The route allows you to view the largest and oldest muralla ibèrica in Catalonia, reinforced with six circular towers.
Visitors can ‘enter’ the rectangular houses, from the most modest up to the constructions made for the most important families of the Iber aristocracy, walk down the cobbled street and discovered the water collection system using cisterns in the rock, a copy of those still existing in the Greek colony in Empúries. The spiritual life of the ancient inhabitants of Ullastret has left its mark with the remains of three temples, from the 4th and the 3rd century BC. The complex is completed with the Ullastret Monographic Museum, which allows interpretation of the site and also to find out about the Iberian culture in the north-east of Catalonia. The Ullastret complex is one of the branches of the Museum of Archaeology of Catalonia.
Occupied by man since the beginning of the Middle Palaeolithic Age until the Metal Ages, the Serinyà Prehistoric Cave Park consists of several shelters or caves (the Arbreda, the Mollet and the Reclau Viver).
Studies carried out have shown that this is one of the best sites in Western Europe for discovering the progression of Neanderthal man to modern man. About 200,000 years ago (Middle Paleolithic) it was inhabited by the pre-Neanderthals (Homo heidelbergensis); later (between 90,000 and 39,000 years ago) the Neanderthals lived there and finally, during the Upper Paleolithic, the caves provided a refuge for modern man (Homo sapiens). All of them inhabited this place during the last glacial periods, when the landscape was very different to that of today.
The most important discoveries include a skull found in 1973, which is the oldest remains of modern human in Catalonia (22,300 years old).
The first archaeological excavations were started by Pere Alsius i Torrent in the second half of the 19th century. In the 20th century, they were continued by Dr. Josep Maria Corominas (1943) and today, work is being carried out by researchers from the University of Girona and the Archaeological Museum of Catalonia-Girona. In 1996, the County Council of Pla de l'Estany started on the construction of the current Park.
Empúries is the only archaeological site in the Iberian Peninsula where the remains of a Greek city Empòrion coexist with those from the Roman city, Emporiae. It is also the gateway to the classical culture: Ten centuries of history that transformed, forever, the ancient Iberian peoples that inhabited it.
The first settlement of the Greeks was in the 6th century BCE on a small island off the coast of the Gulf of Roses (Palaia Polis, ancient city), and then moved to the mainland to establish what was known as the Neàpolis, the new city. In 218 BCE, the port of Empúries was used as an entry point to the peninsula for the Roman troops in their fight against the Carthaginian army. Between the 6th century BCE and the 5th century AD, Empúries has been a port, a commercial enclave, a western colony of Greece, the first Roman encampment on the peninsula, a prosperous Roman city...
The current Greek ruins belong to the city from the Hellenistic period. During the visit there we would find the precincts Asclepius and Serapis, the small industry which produced canned fish and sauces, the Agorá or public square and the remains of the floor of a banqueting room with an inscription in Greek.
Notable from the Roman period is the Domus 1 with the mosaics that decorated the ground, the Insula 30 (area occupied by the city’s public baths), the Forum, the remains of the Basilica and the Curia and the tabernae or shops.
Half way along the route you can visit the Museum of the Empúries excavations which houses the exceptional original sculpture of Asclepius found at the site.
It is therefore a privileged space for understanding the evolution of the Greek and Roman urban development and is a turning point in the history of the Iberian Peninsula. Currently it is one of the sites of the Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya (Archaeological Museum of Catalonia).
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.
Under the waters of El Port de la Selva bay, resting for more than 2,000 years, the Cap del Vol, a Roman vessel that sank with its cargo of wine and which has been baptised with the name of the beach where the wreck remains. From the outset, the researchers realised that the Cap del Vol was not a conventional Roman ship: the characteristics of its naval architecture were quite different from other wrecks (sunken ships) from the same period.
In particular, the draught of the vessel (the distance between the waterline and the keel) is lower than that of other ships and its keel is not pronounced. Features that made it ideal for sailing in shallow waters or in wetland areas and the scholars believe that in reality it was a ship built by the indigenous population of the area.
El Cap del Vol was carrying a load of wine stored in amphora and it is believed that it made the trip between the Catalan coast and that of Narbonne. Among the most remarkable finds there is a coin from Arse (Sagunt) and the cork in one of the amphora.
What life was like in Catalonia 7,000 years ago? Providing an answer to this question has become easier since the discovery of the archaeological site of La Draga, in Banyoles. This neolithic settlement, currently submerged beneath the waters of the lake, is one of the oldest settlements of agricultural and livestock farmers in Catalonia and is an exceptional site: it is the only one on the Iberian Peninsula where tools made entirely of wood have been recovered intact.
In 1994, the Centre for Underwater Archaeology of Catalonia (CASC) began its excavation and study, work which is underway both on the land and underwater. The wooden tools that have been found are bows, javelins, digging sticks, spindles, ladles, mixers and wedges, as well as handles, also of wood, adzes, sickles and arrow stems. The flooring recovered from the cabins where they sheltered has allowed the reconstruction of some of these prehistoric dwellings.
Currently, the La Draga Neolithic Park, located next to the lakeside village, allows the visitor to discover daily life in the Neolithic period and get to know a little more about its ancient settlers. These shelters, built on the banks of the lake, enjoy surroundings that offer resources in abundance.
