What to see in Tarragona on foot

Tarragona
Photo: Bernard Gagnon · CC BY-SA 3.0

Tarragona was Roman Tàrraco, and the medieval city grew up quite literally inside its imperial architecture: the Part Alta sits on the old cult precinct and the Fòrum Provincial. Its walls are the oldest surviving Roman work outside the Italian peninsula.

What to see

Amfiteatre romà de Tàrraco

A Roman amphitheatre set into the slope that runs down to the sea, holding fourteen thousand spectators. In the year 259 the first documented Christian martyr of the peninsula died here. It keeps remains from Roman times and from the Romanesque 12th century.

Balcó del Mediterrani

The end of the Rambla Nova, overlooking the sea, the Platja del Miracle and the port. By tradition, this is where people touch ferro for luck.

Catedral de Santa Maria de Tarragona

A Romanesque and Gothic cathedral, 12th to 16th centuries, built at the city's highest point over the temple of the Roman imperial cult. It took a century and a half to build, and the legend of a pirate archbishop is attached to it.

Circ romà de Tàrraco

A Roman circus with a track of over 325 metres and room for 25,000 spectators. It survives better than any other because the city was built on top of it.

Muralles romanes de Tarragona

Walls of cyclopean blocks that Rome put up while it was still fighting for Hispania. They are the oldest surviving Roman structure outside the Italian peninsula.

Part Alta de Tarragona

The old town fills the Roman cult precinct and Fòrum Provincial: the medieval city settled itself inside the empire's buildings.

Pretori i Torre del Circ (Fòrum Provincial)

From the outside it looks like a medieval tower, faced in 14th-century Gothic stone, but inside is a Flavian-era Roman building that connected the provincial forum with the circus.

Rambla Nova

A broad avenue laid out in the mid-19th century on the space left when part of the wall was pulled down. It is the city's social axis and ends abruptly at the sea.

Carrer Cavallers

A street whose name means “knights”. It was the most distinguished address in the Part Alta in medieval and early modern times.

El Serrallo

A fishing quarter that grew up in the 19th century beside the modern port, with its own parish and its own colla castellera. Its kitchens are where arrossejat and romesco de peix come from.

Museu Nacional Arqueològic de Tarragona (MNAT)

A museum bringing together the mosaics, sculpture and inscriptions of Roman Tàrraco; among its pieces is the well-known Medusa mosaic.

Necròpolis paleocristiana de Tarragona

The burial ground of Tarragona's first Christians. It came to light in 1923, while the foundations of the Tabacalera were being dug, with more than two thousand graves.

How much time you need

Citourfy has 6 walking tours in Tarragona, 26 min to 45 min each: each area can be done on its own, on different days or on the same one.

Getting to the starting point

When to go: festivals

Local festivals, in case you want your visit to coincide with one:

Tarragona audio guide

The app narrates each place as soon as you arrive, using your phone's GPS:

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play

Sources

The facts in this guide come from the same records as the audio guide and from these public inventories:

Facts checked on October 22, 2026.