Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
wall here, given its orientation facing Jerusalem, has led some to speculate that there was a
synagogue here even in Roman times. There were four synagogues in the medieval city, but
after the pogroms of 1391, this one (assuming it was the Sinagoga Major) was Christianised
by the placing of an effigy of St Dominic on the building.
RUIN
TEMPLE ROMÀ D'AUGUST
Opposite the southeast end of La Catedral, narrow Carrer del Paradis leads towards Plaça de
Sant Jaume. Inside No 10, itself an intriguing building with Gothic and baroque touches, are
four columns and the architrave of Barcelona's main Roman temple, dedicated to Caesar
Augustus and built to worship his imperial highness in the 1st century AD.
You are now standing on the highest point of Roman Barcino, Mont Tàber (a grand total
of 16.9m, unlikely to induce altitude sickness). You may well find the door open outside the
listed hours. Just pop in.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE
VIA SEPULCRAL ROMANA
adult/child €2/free; 11am-2pm Tue-Fri, to 7pm Sat & Sun; Catalunya)
Along Carrer de la Canuda, a block east of the top end of La Rambla, is a sunken garden
where a series of Roman tombs lies exposed. A smallish display in Spanish and Catalan be-
side the tombs explores burial and funerary rites and customs. A few bits of pottery (includ-
ing a burial amphora with the skeleton of a three-year-old Roman child) accompany the dis-
play.
The burial ground stretches along either side of the road that led northwest out of Bar-
celona's Roman predecessor, Barcino. Roman law forbade burial within city limits and so
everyone, the great and humble, were generally buried along roads leading out of cities.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE
DOMUS DE SANT HONORAT
€2; 10am-2pm Sat & Sun; Liceu)
The remains of a Roman
domus
(town house) have been unearthed and opened to the public.
The house (and vestiges of three small shops) lay close to the Roman forum and the owners
were clearly well off. Apart from getting something of an idea of daily Roman life through
these remains, the location also contains six medieval grain silos installed at the time the
Jewish quarter, El Call, was located in this area.
