 At
a latitude of 41º5' north and a longitude of 1º14'
east, on the Mediterranean Sea and in the northeast of the Iberian
peninsula, we find Tarragona. Tarragona is a Spanish city which
forms part of the autonomous community of Catalonia. A city
with 2000 years of history, its origins have been fixed in the
era of the arrival of the Romans to the peninsula in the year
218 BC. The necessity of an easily protected harbour was the
motive for the Romans establishing themselves in Tarragona.
They constructed a walled city which would come to be the capital
of "Hispania Citerior," a Roman province which covered
more than half of the Iberian peninsula.
Throughout more than 2000 years, Tarragona has been marked by
the cultures which are reflected in art and urbanism, as well
as basically conserving important archeological sites of the
Roman Tarraco era. Christianity, the Visgoth era, the Arabs,
the middle ages, etc., have formed a city which, starting in
the 1960's, makes an important leap and overcomes a geographical
accident: the Francoli River, constructing a municipality with
diverse yet clearly defined urban districts, disconnected from
the historic center and the modernist neighbourhood, known as
"ensanche" (widening).
The city has a surface area of 63,000 square kilometers,
which include the principal parts of the city and almost the
totality of the Port installations of Tarragona. The mean
altitude is some 70 meters above sea level and the population
is approximately 115,000. As far as climate conditions, it
is pleasant, with an average temperature in spring of 16º,.in
summer 25º, in autumn 19º, and in winter 10ºC.
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