World Heritage The Late Roman Times

Tarragona’s Roman circus was built in the 1st century AD as a venue for chariot races and is calculated to have held some 30,000 spectators. It was built inside the city walls between the Via Augusta and the Provincial Forum, which is why it has certain unusual architectural characteristics. It is considered to be one of the best preserved Roman circuses in the West, despite the fact that much of its structure is still hidden below the mediaeval buildings of the upper part of the city. The Praetorium tower was built in the Roman period to provide access to the Provincial Forum from the lower part of the city through the Circus. In the 16th century it was converted into a palace for the Catalan-Aragonese monarchs and after that it was a prison. The Circus and the Praetorium are managed by the Tarragona Museum of History and are part of the Roman Tarraco archaeological complex declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000. The entrance ticket includes both sites.