TarrAcro-Polis: a scientific journey of 2,000 years of history
Research and scientific dissemination project TarrAcro-Polis (funded by FECYT through the Call for grants for the promotion of scientific, technological and innovation culture, FCT-18-13482) has received a boost, last Tuesday 20 October, with the signature of a collaboration agreement between Biblical Museum of Tarragona (MBT) and County Council of Tarragonès to contribute to the consolidation of the permanent interpretation room in the MBT facilities, one of the expected results of the project.
TarrAcro-Polis is a project led by the ICAC, with the participation of the Biblical Museum, that began in 2019 with the completion of the archaeological documentation works of the Roman structures found in the subsoil, and the consolidation and restoration of these Roman structures.
This museum and scientific dissemination project aims to bring society closer to understanding the historical evolution of the acropolis of Tarragona from Roman times to the present day.
The initiative comes from a long history of research and dissemination developed since 2007; actions endorsed in different competitive research projects led by members of the ICAC and with the collaboration of the Architecture School (ETSA) of the Rovira i Virgili University (under the coordination of Josep Maria Toldrà). Along the different project stages, there have been also collaborations with the Generalitat de Catalunya and with the Santa Maria de Siurana Foundation.
In the same spot, we can observe 20 centuries of history: a unique opportunity to raise awareness of architectural and historical phenomena of the city of Tarragona.
Including a pedagogical approach, TarrAcro-Polis project boosts these research outputs creating permanent dissemination structures, aiming to spread social values related to historical heritage protection and to increase the capacity for understanding the complex evolutionary processes of our cities.
It is also an opportunity to place value on humanistic scientific works and promote research carried out with public funds.
In particular, the project takes place in a specific room in the Biblical Museum of Tarragona adjacent to the County Council of Tarragonès building. Both the MBT and the County Council of Tarragonès share the same patrimonial space, where there are overlapped the imposing structures of the perimeter wall and the foundations of the eastern exedra of the 1st century AD Roman imperial cult enclosure (Temple of Augustus), the medieval and Renaissance buildings of the old Hospital de Santa Tecla (12th-15th centuries) and the “Casa dels Concilis” (12th-20th centuries), as well as a bomb shelter from the Civil War in a perfect state of conservation built-in 1937.
As a result of the different ICAC archaeological interventions, we can observe overlapped Roman, medieval and Renaissance remains and enter, at the same time, a bomb shelter from the Spanish Civil War.
Using models, 3D reconstructions, engravings, epigraphy, numismatics and an audiovisual, attending public will be able to travel across time. There will also available the visit to the archaeological and historical structures of the “Casa dels Concilis” (Biblical Museum of Tarragona) and the building of the Tarragonès County Council.
Visiting the place will include access to a part of the bomb shelter.
The County Council of Tarragonès, through its new collaboration, is committed to supporting a project that values the scientific dissemination of heritage and makes it possible to spread and explain the archaeological and historical structures of its headquarters.
