Tarragona Roman Ruins

Tarraco became a Roman base in 218 BC during the Second Punic War against Hannibal, and grew into the capital of Hispania Citerior, where Augustus wintered in 26–25 BC while campaigning against the Cantabrians. Its seaside amphitheatre hosted gladiators and, in AD 259, the burning alive of Bishop Fructuosus and two deacons—an event a church later marked on the arena floor. Massive Cyclopean walls, a circus for chariot races threaded beneath the modern old town, a forum and a distant aqueduct known as the 'Devil's Bridge' survive. Tarragona is the largest concentration of Roman remains on the Iberian Mediterranean coast.