 At latitude 41º 0.5' north, longitude 1º 14' east in the Mediterranean and in northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, we find Tarragona. Tarragona is a Spanish city that is part of the autonomous community of Catalonia. A two-thousand-year-old city, its origin are known to coincide with the arrival of the Romans to the peninsula, in the year 218 BC. The need for a port and for a place that could be easily protected were the reasons the Romans established themselves in Tarragona. They built a walled city that would come to be the capital of the Hispania Citerior, Roman province that occupied more than half of the Iberian Peninsula. For more than two thousand years, Tarragona has preserved signs of its passing cultures that have been reflected in its art and urbanism, however it fundamentally protects important archaeological remains of the Roman ‘Tarraco’ period. The Christians, Visigoths, Arabs, the Middle Ages, etc., have set up a city that from the 19th century on has experienced a large expansion that exceeds that walls that distinguish the ancient areas and the enlargement of the City. In the 1970's, the City makes an significant leap and overcomes a fundamental geographical accident: The Francoli River. The City is set up in a municipality with different urban concentrations that are clearly defined but disconnected from the historical centre and the 19th century expansion. The surface area of the municipality is 62,945.005 km2, where the main part is found and practically all of the port facilities of the Port of Tarragona. The mean altitude is 70 metres above sea level and the approximate population is 115,000 habitants. Regarding the climatic conditions, the climate is pleasant with an average winter temperature of 10º; summer, 25º; autumn, 19º; and spring, 16º. |
