Why Tarragona is the best alternative to Barcelona
This Spanish city has everything from architecture, history to good food, and even a Roman amphitheatre. But what it doesn’t have is masses of tourists or protesting locals.
The streets of Tarragona still speak Latin. A stone tablet embedded in the wall of a venerable candle shop, the circa 1751 Antigua Casa Corderet, whispers the name of Fabia Saturnina. The inscription on this ancient plinth, paid for by her doting husband, Caius, praises her as uxori optima, “the best wife”.
In the new-ish La Quimera bookshop I browse a Gaudi volume beneath a vault that once supported the circus maximus, where rapt residents of the Roman colony of Tarraco gathered to watch chariot races. Only the eastern section of the 300m circus remains – the rest of it is buried under 19th-century buildings, including this bookshop, several bars, a nightclub, a bank and many residences.
By late morning I’m seated in the classic 1950s taverna Toful, facing a square and a remnant wall of the first-century forum, one-time seat of government for the Roman province of Hispania Citerior. There’s a farmers market on this square twice a week, guide Xavi Mejuto mentions as we sip iced vermouth and chew tender mouthfuls of aioli-coated octopus.
“With one vermouth, you understand the tour better,” Mejuto smiles. “With two, you see the Romans in the streets. With three vermouths, they attack you.”
In Tarragona, a city of 140,000 founded in the fifth century BC, the extraordinary is everywhere. I had visited once before, very briefly, and left with visions of medieval streetscapes shadowed in intrigue. The urge to return and explore properly intensified with my annual visits to ever-more-crowded Barcelona.
In October I spent time in both cities and the contrast was quite stark. While Barcelona’s Boqueria market is now wall to wall with influencers, behind the quirkily Modernist facade of Tarragona’s Central Market the only person taking photos is me.
Under its triple naves and iron pillars I discover a modern, multistorey harvest of Catalonian produce, from snack bars serving lunches for €11 ($18) to seafood stalls selling pop (octopus) and rap (monkfish). In Barcelona I can no longer get into even mildly buzzy tapas joints such as Bar del Pla, which used to be one of my favourite hangouts. In Tarragona, Mejuto and I saunter straight into a table at AQ, a smart city restaurant in the Part Alta historic quarter.
Chef/owner Ana Ruiz welcomes us with her “ravioli” of raw Tarragona red shrimp and garlic puree swimming in a pool of prawn head-infused olive oil. It’s luxurious in both flavour and texture. “Please remember to dip your bread in the olive oil,” Ruiz counsels. “It’s the most important ingredient.”
To follow is AQ’s signature octopus coulant, a small turret of offally nice butifarra pork sausage crowned with confit potato, paprika and grilled octopus. A soft egg inside explodes on contact.
And, while in Barcelona I fret about whether I’m staying in the latest, coolest hotel to write about, in Tarragona there is one obvious place to stay and it does not disappoint. The H10 Imperial Tarraco towers above Tarragona’s ruined amphitheatre and the Mediterranean coastline, its south-facing balconies capturing all-day sun, dramatic city views and breezes that lift off the sea. It’s very pleasant and well situated.
It’s a few minutes’ walk to the Rambla Nova, the city’s grandest avenue, lined with restaurants, bars and some beautiful mansions. Locals promenade its length daily and pause at its seafront balcony to admire the view and tocar ferro, touch the iron railings for luck.
Side streets off the Rambla lead to authentic neighbourhood scenes such as Plaza Verdaguer, where Tarragonans shop for fine Spanish hams and sandwiches at Ibericus, and readymade meals such as roast chicken and fricando, a stew of veal and eggplant, at the family-owned Colet. Elsewhere on the square, second-generation gelato maker Raffa blends local hazelnuts and chestnuts into iced confections, and the full-of-wonders wine shop VinoVi stocks 1500 labels, two-thirds of them sourced from Tarragona province’s eight appellations.
Castellers season is over but Mejuto takes me by the studio of Jove Xiquets to see youngsters practise making the human towers, or castellers, that so define the Catalan character they’ve been added to UNESCO’s register of intangible cultural heritage of humanity. The tallest tower recorded to date was 10 (human) storeys high, a joint effort by more than 1000 people.
“It speaks to the effort of the collective and what can be achieved by working together,” Mejuto explains. “There’s a phrase we have: forca, equilibrio, valor y sena. Strength, balance, courage and common sense.”
Back at H10 Hotel, I’m standing on the rooftop with another guide, David Verdejo, peering over the balcony at the second-century amphitheatre which, he explains, once hosted battles between humans and tigers or crocodiles. Often these were followed by some Christian executions and gladiator contests between the colony’s favourite slaves.
Our tour continues via the city’s central square, Plaza de la Font, which is lined with narrow houses each the width of a Roman vault (this used to be part of the circus). We pop into the city council building to see a giant Frida Kahlo effigy preserved from this year’s festival of Santa Tecla, the city’s patron saint, and the fabulous porphyry-and-mosaic mausoleum of King James I, designed by Modernist architect Lluis Domenec i Montaner.
Further up the hill we pass through a city gate in Roman-era walls dating from 218BC, the stones still etched with workers’ markings showing how many stones they laid in a month so supervisors could calculate their salaries. We stop for a drink on the columned terrace of Casa Balcells, a medieval house by the Gothic and Romanesque fantasy of the cathedral. Long ago, a temple dedicated to the god-emperor Augustus stood on this very spot.
On echoing stone streets lit softly by streetlamps we pass by the Conservatory of Music as the notes of a string concerto drift up into the night. Exactly the sort of magic moment I’d hoped to find in Tarragona.
In the know
Seafront rooms at H10 Hotel from €162 ($262) a night with a generous buffet breakfast. Xavi Mejuto and his team at Itenere Tarragona offer a range of hosted itineraries, including daily city highlights tours for €22.
Kendall Hill was a guest of Turisme de Catalunya.
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