Tarragona Part One

September 17, 2023

Tarragona is such an amazing place, I'd wanted to visit for years, especially because there is the most magnificent aqueduct just outside the city. (Thats coming in another post). In Roman times it was called Tarraco, capital of Hispania Tarraconesis, and was one of the biggest and most prosperous cities of Roman Spain. The city itself is a UNESCO world heritage site, giving you an idea of just how important it was.

UNESCO as a concept is a brilliant idea, and there are 1,157 world heritage sites across the world (I've been to around 70 of them). In some ways, its a great thing. The designation of somewhere being a UNESCO world heritage site raises the profile of the area, particularly those not previously well known. By making it more well known, it brings in more tourists, creating jobs and providing the local economy a boost, which then also helps to fun conservation and preservation work where needed. It also helps boost local infrastructure, to enable visitors to reach it more easily. But all of those things can be negative too. Often local economies loose out on revenue that it snapped up by large corporations, increased tourist numbers mean a strain on local infrastructure and resources, while also causing wear & tear and damage to the monument in question. Also, it doesn't guarantee more support and resource for conservation, in some cases it means less as people try to snap up land around it for development to take advantage of the boost in tourist numbers.

As with anything, it's a double edged sword. You've got make sure the benefits are evenly spread across the whole site, both directly and indirectly. Also, it seems some areas miss out on being made world heritage sites, due to lack of affordability to do so and a lack of political will, especially for countries coming out of conflicts and natural disasters where naturally the priority is rehoming people and providing aid. That may explain why Europe and North America account for much more world heritage sites than the rest of world.

Its up to us to make sure that as a species we look after sites across the world, both on the list or not, to ensure that our shared history can be shared with our descendants for many years to come. That way we can continue to learn about each others history and culture.

Anyway, thats enough of me talking about that! Lets get back to Tarragona.

It's a beautiful city on the Spanish coast, where its hot but the sea breeze cools you off, and the ample trees provide you with shade. It's easy to understand why this was the Roman's first settlement here in Spain, for it is perfect. Have a wander along the Mediterranean balcony, and take a look for yourself! (Also beware, there's a starling statue of a baby strangling a goose in a water feature halfway along!)

Bizarre I know. Don't visit if you're a goose!

Tarragona also has a lovely Cathedral. The inside appears quite plain at first, but don't be fooled, there's plenty of faded paintings on the walls, fun carvings and a glorious cloister too. The Spanish really do know how to make a good cloister!

The Christian faith tells you that God is always watching. But he can't surely be watching us all the time, so maybe angels watch us, and to make them less obvious they disguise themselves as pigeons. Think about it, there's pigeons everywhere, always nearby and hanging around you to hear what you are saying and if your being a good person. Make sure you feed Gabriel some crumbs!