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Camp de Tarragona

A walk through the Tarragona marina

We begin our getaway in Serrallo, Tarragona’s marine neighbourhood, a reference point due to its gastronomic offer and prime location. Here, parents, children and grandchildren of fishermen alike have followed in the traditional professional footsteps of their ancestors to preserve the marine soul of the streets of Serrallo.
 
Tarragona enjoys a strategic location in the Mediterranean that favoured the arrival of the Romans and its development as the capital of Hispania Citerior. More than 2,000 years ago, the Romans built the first man-made port buildings. Since then, the Tarragona coast has been, with varying degrees of success, an entry and exit route for products, ideas and people. This port tradition is evident in the Serrallo Muelle de Costa, former premises of the Port of Tarragona converted into a space for civic and cultural use in 1986. There, we find the recently renovated Port Museum, which offers detailed explanations of its history, from the times of the Roman Tarraco to the current day. It also showcases life on the docks, different types of fishing, sports activities, boats and merchandise linked to the Mediterranean.
 
Still in the Muelle de Costa, we find Tinglado 4, which was a maritime passenger terminal in the nineties and now houses the “TARRACO/MNAT” exhibition, where we can learn about the history of Tarraco through archaeology and the most emblematic pieces from the MNAT collection.
 
We simply can’t leave the port without taking a stroll to the spectacular Banya lighthouse, a unique testimony of the metal lighthouses that were built at the mouth of the Ebre. It was located at the Punta de la Banya and in the past was a shelter for boats during storms and a place for exchanging goods and supplies in the Ràpita area.
 
Roman Tarragona is also well worth a visit, with impressive monuments preserved from those times. We can take in the Necropolis of Tarraco, one of the best-known and best-preserved late Roman cemeteries of the Roman Empire, or the Theatre of Tarraco, a Augustan-age construction that still preserves part of the stands and the stage. But also the spectacular Amphitheatre, where gladiator fights and wild animal hunts took place, and the archaeological walk along the Roman wall.

An excursion proposed in collaboration with the magazine Descobrir.
English translation unavailable for Itineraris pel MNAT: l'enigma de Centcelles.

Guided tour at the castle-monastery of Escornalbou

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Domènech i Montaner, without leaving Reus

2023 marks the centenary of the death of the Modernista architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner. A stroll through Reus is like a celebration of his work because some of his most outstanding works, contemporaneous with those of other renowned Modernista architects such as Antoni Gaudí, are to be found here.
 
The Casa Navàs is in the Plaça del Mercadal which, lined with café terraces, is an ideal place to verify the fame of Reus' vermouth. The Casa Navàs is the only Modernista building in Europe to have kept its original interior, remarkable on account of its more than 200 square metres of stained glass windows, its work in stone and its embroidered tapestries, amongst other jewels. The Domènech i Montaner route continues on to the Casa Rull, built in 1900, just as Modernisme was expanding its influence. It stands on a corner making it easier to admire its doorways, Gothic-inspired windows and the crenellations that crown the facade.  Just a few metres away is the Casa Gasull, which was commissioned ten years later by the olive oil merchant, Pere Gasull. It differs from the Casa Rull insofar as it shows the influence of Noucentisme on Domènech i Montaner's architecture. He was also responsible for the interior design of the impressive library in the Casa Pau Font de Rubinat and for the refurbished facade of the Casa Llopis Borràs in Carrer Raval de Sant Pere in Reus.
 
The Pavelló dels Distingits ('Pavilion of the Distinguished') of the Institut Pere Mata, on the outskirts of Reus, is another of Domènech i Mon­taner's celebrated works. Its astonishing ornamentation makes it the building with the highest artistic value amongst the institution's architectural ensemble. For a journey back to the time it was built, Còdol Educació has programmed theatrical visits that also include the Modernista architecture and decoration of this building that was so exemplary for the treatment of 20th-century patients with mental illnesses. The route concludes at the municipal cemetery, which is also on the outskirts of Reus, for which Domènech i Mon­taner was commissioned for the design of the Margenat chapel, which has quadrangular floor plan and a ribbed vault. While the paving has highly varied decoration, the chapel walls are divided into two parts by a frieze depicting flowers and angels in relief. 
 

English translation unavailable for Visites guiades a la Cartoixa d’Escaladei.
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Jujol's Modernisme in Camp de Tarragona

BAIX PENEDÈS

We can start the excursion in Vendrell to visit the church of Sant Salvador whose Modernista altar and baldachin, of Baroque inspiration and supported by magnificent Solomonic columns, are by Jujol.
 

ALT CAMP

From Baix Penedès we go now to Alt Camp, where one of the jewels of Jujol's legacy awaits us, the sanctuary of La Mare de Déu de Montserrat, which crowns the Corralet de Montferri hill. Its interior structure is spectacular. It has one hundred and twenty catenary arches that create the shape of a ship pointed as if ready to sail to the mountains of Montserrat, Jujol's source of inspiration.

TARRAGONÈS

We continue the excursion in the Tarragonès district, stopping first in the centre of Vistabella, in La Secuita. The church of Sagrat Cor is one of Jujol's few newbuild constructions in the Camp de Tarragona, and he achieved it almost without resources. The land was given by a rich donor, the stones came from ploughing the earth and labour was voluntary. And the result? A building with a spire visible throughout the district.

In Els Pallaresos we visit the Casa Bofarull, which Jujol spent eighteen years restoring. Animals, flowers and colours abound in the decoration of the house in a festival of natural features that reflect its rural setting.

The Jujol Centre in Els Pallaresos is also well worth a visit. It is located in the former Town Council and school building, a building he designed himself between 1917 and 1920.

We finish our excursion in the city of Tarragona, at the Teatre Metropol, which was commissioned from Jujol as a young man, just as he was embarking on his career as an independent architect after having worked alongside Gaudí. It was a very daring, highly imaginative and well-executed project, inspired by the waves of the sea beating against the hull of a ship.

*An excursion proposed in collaboration with the magazine Descobrir. 

Wine routes: camp de Tarragona

The regions of the Camp de Tarragona constitute the basis for this route. A region that concentrates most of the cooperative wineries of Catalonia.

Here we see several "wine cathedrals" such as those of L'Espluga de Francolí, Rocafort de Queralt, Barberà de la Conca and Nulles. To this group we must also add the "wine cathedrals" of Priorat (Cornudella de Montsant and Falset) and Terra Alta (Pinell de Brai and Gandesa).
 
TRADITION AND INNOVATION

To these well known wineries others, such as that of the Sindicat Agrícola de Vila-Rodona, that of Pla de Santa Maria, Santes Creus and Aiguamúrcia must also be added. The façade of this last one evokes the rural Catalan architecture in the form of a large country manor house. Inside, we can see the traditional features, such as the wooden trusses that support the roof, and other innovative elements, such as the parabolic arches on both sides.
 
THE CISTERCIAN AND ROMAN TRACK

Well worth visiting is the Cistercian Monastery of Santes Creus, where the remains of King Peter the Great lie, or the old town of Alcover, with its ancient portals and walls.

There is also evidence of the Roman past, as can be seen in the Villa of Centcelles, the amphitheatre of Tarragona or the so-called "long vault", a spectacular barrel vault, 93 metres long, which could have been a public agricultural store (horreum) and which is located under the street known today as "Carrer de l'Enrajolat".
 
A WALK THROUGH THE MODERNIST TARRAGONA

If you are interested in Modernisme, in the city of Tarragona you will find the Teatro Metropol, adapted by the architect Josep Maria Jujol and the Mausoleu de Jaume I, designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner. Outside the city are also Modernista traces - beyond the wineries- in the Modernista sanctuary of Montserrat de Montferri.

If you visit Tarragona in spring, you must visit the Tàrraco Viva Festival and do not leave without sampling a good "calçotada" (typical roasted spring onions with romesco sauce) in Valls! 


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A most historical stroll though Conca de Barberà

MONTBLANC
 
You start in Montblanc, the capital of Conca de Barberà, to take a stroll around the historic centre and the walls, which are the scene of the legend of Sant Jordi. You can visit on your own or, if you prefer, you can contact the Tourist Office for a guided tour that will provide a more thorough treatment of the secrets of this walled town.

In Montblanc you can also visit the Muntanyes de Prades Cave Art Interpretation Centre. This mountain range contains 15 cave art locations dating from between 9,000 and 2,000 years BCE that speak to us about our forebears' real and symbolic worlds. If you want to visit the caves themselves you can contract a guided visit that will take you to them in a 4x4 vehicle. These paintings are catalogued as UNESCO World Heritage and they form part of the Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya Rock Art Route.

ESPLUGA DE FRANCOLÍ
 
From Montblanc you go to L’Espluga de Francolí where you are awaited by the Museu de la Vida Rural (Rural Life Museum), the Fassina Balanyà, the Museu del Vi and, above all, the Cova Museu de la Font Major, where a Palaeolithic sanctuary was recently discovered with more than 100 engravings. 

VIMBODÍ AND POBLET

Leaving Espluga you set off to Vimbodí i Poblet where you will find the Royal Monastery of Santa Maria de Poblet, which is also catalogued as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The monastery has a new visitor centre with videos, immersive projections and interactive panels that provide a new look at the meaning of monastic life in the 21st century. These audiovisual resources round off the visit to the three key sites of the Cistercian Route, which can be followed on foot or by bicycle, and which links this monastery with those of Santes Creus and Vallbona de les Monges.


*An excursion proposed in collaboration with the magazine Descobrir.