subject: Places to visit Tarragona [print this page] Places to visit Tarragona Places to visit Tarragona
On the edge of the city, overlooking the River Francoli, an extraordinary museum has been established in an unlikely place. The Necropolis i Museu Paleocristia (Necropolis and Paleo Christian Museum), a cemetery for Tarragona's early Christians, is about as big as three football fields. The site has been left essentially as it was. You can walk along the observation platforms looking down upon hundreds of graves, urns and even bones lying where they were uncovered. And in the adjoining museum you can see the best of the finds. Several 5thcentury sarcophagi are sculpted with astounding skill.
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Walking up Carrer Sant Agusti from the Rambla, the old city soon closes in. By the time the street's name has changed to Major you can feel the throb of real main Ancient tomb sculpture (opposite) is one facet of Tarragona beauty. Streets, cathedral add to mood. stream Mediterranean life. The road turns a bend and sudden Iy the Cathedral comes into 4 view, strangely cropped at the edges by its elevation and the narrowness of the street. A flight of 19 steps leads from the end of Carrer Major to the Pia de la Seu, an attractive, almost intimate square before the church. But don't overlook the last cross street before the cathedral the Merceria (Haberdashery Street) with its medieval porticoes.
A shop here advertises canaries; a female costs half the price of a male (presumably because females can't sing).Surrounding walls and tricks of perspective may distort your estimation of the cathedral's size. The area of the far;ade is deceptive. But the great Gothic doorway, and one of Europe's largest rose windows above it, provide a clue.Follow the arrows to the tourist entrance, far around the church to the left, via the cloister. Construction of this cathedral, on the site of a Roman temple to Jupiter, was begun in 1171, and it was consecrated in 1331. The architectural styles inside the cathedral mix Romanesque and Gothic; the overall effect, looking up at the great vaulted ceiling, is austere majesty. The main altarpiece, carved in alabaster by the 15th century Catalan master Pere Johan, shows splendid lifelike detai I. It is dedicated to St. Thecla, the local patron saint. She is said to have been converted to Christianity by St. Paul, who, according to legend, preached in Tarragona.
To the right of the high altar is the tomb of Prince Don Juan de Aragon, an archbishop of Tarragona who died in 1334 at the age of 33. Note the sensitive carving on the sepulcher. The artist's identity is unknown; the influence seems to be Italian. Nineteen chapels fill the sides of the church. Their design and decoration tend to extremes either unforgettable ly beautiful, or unexpectedly 19thcentury kitsch. Don't miss three chapels: Capella de Nostra Senyora de Montserrat (Chapel of Our Lady of Montserrat), with its 15thcentury altarpiece; the filigreed sculpture in the 14thcentury Capella de Santa Maria dels Sastres (Chapel of St. Mary of the Tailors) and the 18thcentury Capella de Santa Tecla (Chapel of St. Thecla).
And if the art appreciation and sheer footslogging become a bit too much, just take a seat in the congregation and look up at the sunbeams piercing the filters of the rose window. Outside, again, the cloister offers some surprises. First, its size some 150 feet down each side. The quadrangle is so big , that there is little shade, and perhaps less feeling of serenity than in other cloisters of the 12th and 13th centuries. But notice the sculptural innovations and details. Everyone stops to figure out the relief ' known as the Procession of the Rats, a wry fable carved 700 years before the invention of Mickey Mouse. Built into one of the walls is another unexpected feature Moslem monument of marble. The date on its inscription works out to A.D. 960. This mihrab or shrine is believed to have arrived in Tarragona as a battle trophy.
The cathedral's Museum Diocesa (Diocesan Museum) possesses prehistoric and Roman archaeological relics, medieval religious paintings, and a large and valuable collection of tapestries. For a drastic change of pace, take a bus or taxi, or a very long walk, down to the Tarragona waterfront district unaccountably known as EI Serra II (the harem). This is clearly an important fishing centre, a radical escalation from the usual quaint port found elsewhere along this coast. In the afternoon the big trawlers come back from the open sea. Trays of ice and big refrigerated lorries are waiting on the quayside.
Before disembarking, the tanned fishermen clean and separate the different species of fish in the hold. They swallow the last trickle of wine from the ship's pO/Ton, then step ashore to bargain with wholesalers over prices. Elsewhere along the quay, half a dozen women seated under parasols mend the huge fish-nets bound for sea before the next dawn. For local colour, and aroma, EI Serrall is hard to match. If you have half a chance, eat in one of the nearby fish restaurants. Tarragona cooking is known far and wide in Catalonia, and the ingredients couldn't be fresher.
