Tarragona

Sister cities

• Klagenfurt am Wörthersee
• Pompei
• Tirana
• Orléans
• Avignon
• Stafford
• Voiron
• Pančevo
• Alghero
• Pozzuoli

History

One Catalan legend holds that Tarragona was named for Tarraho, eldest son of Tubal in c. 2407 BC; another (derived from Strabo and Megasthenes) attributes the name to 'Tearcon the Ethiopian', a seventh-century BC pharaoh who campaigned in Spain. The real founding date of Tarragona is unknown. The city's origins trace back to a possible Iberian settlement known as Kesse or Kosse, named after the local Iberian tribe, the Cossetans. However, the exact connection of Tarragona to Kesse remains uncertain. Scholars such as William Smith suggest that the city may have been established by the Phoenicians, who referred to it as . According to Samuel Bochart, signifies a citadel. The moniker likely stemmed from its location atop a high rock, approximately above sea level; earning it the epithet . It was seated on the river Sulcis or Tulcis (modern Francolí), on a bay of the Mare Internum (Mediterranean), between the Pyrenees and the River Iberus (modern Ebro). Livy mentions a ; and according to Eratosthenes it had a naval station or roads (); but Artemidorus Ephesius says with more probability that it had none, and scarcely even an anchoring place; and Strabo himself refers to it as "harbourless" (). Tarraco lies on the main road along the northeastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. During the Roman Republic, the city was fortified and much enlarged as a Roman colony by the brothers Publius Cornelius Scipio and Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus, who converted it into a fortress and arsenal against the Carthaginians. The city was first named Colonia Iulia Urbs Triumphalis Tarraco and was capital of the province of Hispania Citerior. Subsequently, it became the capital (conventus iuridicus) of the province named after it, Hispania Tarraconensis. Augustus wintered at Tarraco after…

Most-observed species

• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  3,648
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  3,007
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,875
• Eurasian Collared-Dove

  Streptopelia decaocto (Frivaldszky, 1838) · Aves
  2,439
• White Wagtail

  Motacilla alba Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,358
• Sardinian Warbler

  Curruca melanocephala (J.F.Gmelin, 1789) · Aves
  2,357
• European Serin

  Serinus serinus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  2,181
• European Goldfinch

  Carduelis carduelis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,148

Most recent

• M 3.7 — 2013-10-04
  28 km ESE of Vinaròs, Spain
• M 4 — 2013-10-02
  29 km ESE of Vinaròs, Spain
• M 4.3 — 2013-10-02
  30 km ESE of Vinaròs, Spain
• M 4.1 — 2013-10-01
  30 km ESE of Vinaròs, Spain
• M 2.8 — 2008-06-17
  12 km SSE of Tarragona, Spain
• M 2.6 — 2008-03-14
  3 km N of Vilaplana, Spain