Tarragona Roman Colonial Forum | Fòrum colonial de Tarraco
30BC Colonial Forum meeting & adminastrative centre for Roman city of Tàrraco. Temple dedicated to the gods of Jupiter, Juno & Minerva
About Tarragona Roman Colonial Forum (MHT)
The Colonial forum was the religious, social and political center of the Roman Tàrraco city. It was an open square enclosure surrounded by adminastrative buildings and a temple dedicated to the capital triad (Jupiter, Juno and Minerva). The forum dates from the Republican era (510-31 BC) and is believed to be from 30BC.
The Colonial Forum in was the adminastrative centre for the city of Tàrraco whereas the Provintial Forum in the part Alta was the adminastrative centre for the whole Roman province covering an area greater than what is today Catalonia. The Provintial Forum can be thought of as a parliament and Colonial Forum can be thought of as townhall.
The Colonial Forum is located at what was the centre of the residential part of Tàrraco, halfway between the provincial administrative space and the port. All the main streets in the residential area lead to the Colonial Forum because all public activity of the city was concentrated there. It became a meeting point for the local elites where all administrative activity took place. The heart of the social and political life of the colony.
It is believed that the Colonial Forum space was surrounded by porticoes. In the Augustan era (27 BC to 14 AD), with the construction of the theater, the square underwent a transformation, opening up to the enclosure wall of the bleachers or cavea.
Finally, in the Tiberian era (14 BC to 37 AD), a new annexed public square (forum adiectum) was built, raised above the first square. This new forum was presided over by a basilica with three naves, one of which opened onto a new porticoed square on three of its sides. The portico on the south side rested on a cryptoportico documented in recent excavations carried out on Carrer de Gasòmetre.
Today the Colonial Forum archaeological site is constrained by Carrer del Cardenal Cervantes, carrer de Lleida and Carrer de Gasòmetre.
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