Catalonia & the Pyrenees Best - Discover Spain: Experience the Best of Spain - page 199

held. The circus, 300m long, stretched from here to beyond Plaça de la Font to the
west. Near the beach is the crown jewel of Tarragona's Roman sites, the well-pre-
served Amfiteatre Romà Offline map Google map

(Plaça d'Arce Ochotorena) , where gladiators battled each other or wild animals to
the death. In its arena are the remains of 6th- and 12th-century churches built to
commemorate the martyrdom of the Christian bishop Fructuosus and two deacons,
who, they say, were burnt alive here in AD 259.
The remains of the Fòrum Romà Offline map Google map (Carrer del Cardenal
Cervantes) are dominated by several imposing columns. The northwest half of this
site was occupied by a judicial basilica (where legal disputes were settled), from
which the rest of the forum stretched downhill to the southwest.
The Passeig Arqueològic Offline map Google map is a peaceful walk around
part of the perimeter of the old town between two lines of city walls; the inner ones
are mainly Roman, while the outer ones were put up by the British during the War
of the Spanish Succession.

CATEDRAL
(Pla de la Seu; adult/child €3.80/1.20; 10am-7pm Mon-Sat, shorter hr rest of yr)
Sitting grandly at the top of the old town, Tarragona's cathedral is undergoing a ma-
jor facelift and much of it is largely closed (although it's scheduled to be finished
long before you get your hands on this topic). However, the cloisters and museum
are open and continue to demand a solid chunk of your time. Built between 1171
and 1331 on the site of a Roman temple, it combines Romanesque and Gothic fea-
tures, as typified by the main facade on Pla de la Seu. The entrance is by the
cloister on the northwest flank of the building.
The cloister has Gothic vaulting and Romanesque carved capitals, one of which
shows rats conducting what they imagine to be a cat's funeral…until the cat comes
back to life! The rooms off the cloister house the Museu Diocesà Offline map
Google map , displaying an extensive collection extending from Roman hairpins to
some lovely 12th- to 14th-century polychrome woodcarvings of a breastfeeding Vir-
gin Mary.
The interior of the cathedral, over 100m long, is Romanesque at the northeast
end and Gothic at the southwest.

Cathedral

MUSEU NACIONAL ARQUEOLÒGIC DE TARRAGONA Museum