A historical round

A D Eng 1
trip between Barcino G H
and Barcelona (BCN),
between the Roman ROMAN SEPULCHRAL WAY DOMUS AND TABERNAE
colony and contemporary
Barcelona, which allows
us to place both the
traces left by the Roman
BARCINO/BCN THE ROADWAYS AND ORGANISATION OF THE
TERRITORY IN THE ROMAN PERIOD
THE SANT HONORAT DOMUS
This domus was built in the 4th century beside
city in the history of The Via Augusta was the main axis of the roadway the decumanus minor (present-day Carrer de Sant
Barcelona and the network of Hispania, linking Rome to Gades (present- Honorat), one of the city’s main axes, right beside
impact of converting day Cadiz) following the western Mediterranean arc. the forum. The domus, the residences of well-to-do
some of its remains into families, were organised around a garden (viridarium)
A coastal branch of the Via Augusta connected
monuments. surrounded by a portico (peristilum), around which the
Blandae (Blanes), Iluro (Mataró), Baetulo (Badalona)
private rooms (cubicula) were arranged. Its privileged
and Barcino with the rest of the territory. The plain of
location at the nerve-centre of citizens’ lives and its
Barcelona was further connected by a whole network
large size indicate that the dwelling was owned by a
of paths and secondary roads.
member of the Barcino elite. BARCINO/BCN
Urban History
A journey through the A SECONDARY ROAD Guide
THE MOSAICS AND PAINTINGS
monumental present of The secondary road found at the Plaça de la Vila de
The social importance of the inhabitants of the
Barcelona that allows Madrid ran on to the Via Augusta (along the section
domus is also plain from the residence’s impressive
us to find out how and now travelled by Carrer de la Boqueria), traversing
decorations. Right in the middle of the central
why the last century and the city from one side to the other and forming the
garden the vestiges of a lacus and an ornamental
a half the testimonies cardo maximus, one of the two main streets in the

BARCELONA
fountain have been found, and both the portico
to Barcino have been built-up Barcino of the time.
and the rooms house the remains of elaborate floor
recovered, turned paving of polychromatic mosaics with geometrical
into monuments and THE NECROPOLIS and plant motifs, as well as fresco paintings on the
incorporated into the On both sides of the road were a large number of walls in imitation of marble plinths.
urban fabric of the city, sepulchres and various funerary monuments that
like a kind of monumental formed a necropolis, used between the 1st and 3rd
“Neo-Barcino”. centuries AD by the working classes of Barcino.
THE tabernae
Roman law forbade burial of the dead within the The three documented shops or tabernae backed onto
cities, so the necropolises were placed outside it, the domus and opened out towards the street. The
near the entrance roads. choice, busy, very central location of these shops in
the 4th century must have boosted the profitability
of the businesses that set up there. More than two
A journey through the SEPULCHRES AND RITUALS hundred Roman coins found at the site bear witness
Roman past of Barcelona, Various kinds of tombs were used, notable among to that activity.
allowing us to discover which were the cupae, furnerary monuments that
The tabernae were buildings of simple structure,
the Iulia Augusta Faventia crowned the sepulchres and were shaped like wooden
made up of a back-shop to the rear, often used as
Paterna Barcino colony barrels. Placed within the sepulchres, various objects
a dwelling, and by the shop itself, opening onto the
through the material accompanied the deceased on their journey into the
public thoroughfare, where relations and commercial
BARCINO
testimonies to it: the beyond. An inscription was usually left in memory
transactions took place.
roadways to and entrances of the person buried. Inhumation and incineration
into the city, the water- existed alongside each other in this necropolis over
supply system, the centres the first two centuries, though in the third century
of political and religious inhumation became entirely dominant.
power, the main streets,
the areas of production, the
systems of defence, etc.

E F

TEMPLE AND FORUM WORKSHOPS AND FACTORIES FORTIFIED WALL

THE TEMPLE OF AUGUSTUS WORKSHOPS AND FACTORIES THE FOUNDING WALL, Museu d’Història de Barcelona
Rising up on a three-metre podium and built along From the 2nd century Barcino had a district with FROM THE END OF THE 1ST CENTURY BC Plaça del Rei, s/n
the longitudinal axis of the Barcino forum, the temple workshops and factories devoted to craft and Ancient Barcino was surrounded by a fortifying wall, 08002 Barcelona
A dedicated to Augustus and to the deified emperors processing activities, located close to the cardo with four gateways that coincided with the ends of Information and reservations:
was one of the most important buildings constructed maximus, to the north of the forum, where the Plaça the cardo maximus and the decumanus maximus, Tel. 93 256 21 22
B at the time of founding of the city, at the end of the the main streets that ran through the city from one
del Rei lies today. The archaeological circuit that [email protected]
1st century BC. Only four columns now remain of runs under the square, with its entrance from the side to the other. The founding wall had defensive
the temple, standing nine metres high, each with a Barcelona History Museum, allows the vestiges of ditches and some towers, and was made from
striated shaft and a Corinthian-style capital, as well some of those installations to be visited. uniformly shaped, smallish stone blocks.
as part of the architrave and the podium. MUHBA Urban History Guides

THE SECOND WALL OF BARCINO 1 BARCINO/BCN

WASH-HOUSE (FULLONICA) AND DYE
C THE FORUM WORKSHOP (TINCTORIA) FROM THE FIRST HALF OF THE 4TH CENTURY 2 GAUDÍ/BCN
The forum was the city’s central square, open at the The remains are conserved of what was a clothes Barcino was fortified again in the first half of the 3 DIAGONAL/BCN
point where the two main streets that run through wash-house and dyeing workshop. We can make out 4th century. The second wall, with 76 towers, was 4 PARKS/BCN
G
it, the cardo maximus and the decumanus maximus, the tanks or washbasins in which the clothes were erected in front of the existing wall, forming a sort
5 GOTHIC/BCN
crossed perpendicularly. It housed the most washed and rinsed and various basins used for of exterior shell for the defensive face. Its lower part
F important public buildings (the basilica, the curia or dyeing them. was built from large blocks of stone, while the upper 6 WATER/BCN
D senate house, the temple, the market, shops, etc.) parts of the towers used small slabs. All kinds of 7 SHANTIES/BCN
E and was therefore the nerve-centre of Barcino. materials and pieces of stone were used to build it, 8 DEFENCE 1936-39/BCN
SALTING AND GARUM (CETARIA) FACTORY even sculpted items from buildings that had been
In the 3rd century it operated as a fish-salting 9 ORIENT/BCN
THE HONORARY INSCRIPTIONS removed from their original locations.
factory and for making garum, a sauce made from 10 SEAT 1950-65/BCN
H The forum also contained pedestals upon which macerated fish entrails mixed with other products
were mounted honorary statues and commemorative such as oil and vinegar. Of it there remain various THE ROMAN WALLS IN CONTEMPORARY
BARCELONA
monuments in praise of the emperor and the
city’s local worthies and important families, or to
rooms and some tanks in which the fish was washed,
cut up and stored. It seemed that Barcino garum Having been appropriately rebuilt and reinforced, www.museuhistoria.bcn.cat
commemorate an important event. The beginning of managed to achieve a certain prestige. the last Roman wall defended the city down to the
the 5th century marked the start of the forum’s decline late Middle Ages. Contemporary Barcelona still has

D. L.: B-24697-2011 - ISSN: 2014-8879 - 13/05/05/GHU

© MUHBA 2011 1st edition, December 2012

I as the epicentre of citizen life, as evidenced by the various towers and sections of that fortification, TEXTS ILLUSTRATIONS GRAPHIC DESIGN
fact that many of the honorary monuments that had WINEMAKING FACILITIES some visible from the street, while others are Joan Roca CAD4 Miguel Sal & C.
A substantial winemaking facility remains beside the Mònica Blasco Emili Revilla
decorated the former square were dismantled and concealed by the houses built up against them over Xavier González Francesc Riart
used as construction materials for new buildings. garum factory, dating from the 3rd and 4th centuries. the course of the centuries. The wall is currently Ricardo Mar
Various dolia, large earthenware receptacles, would incorporated into the public spaces of Avinguda de
have been capable of storing some ten thousand PHOTOGRAPHY

BARCINO / BCN
THE PEDESTAL IN HONOUR OF QUINTUS la Catedral, Carrer de la Tapineria, Plaça de Ramon Arxiu Fotogràfic de Barcelona Pep Herrero
litres of wine. Berenguer el Gran, Carrer del Sotstinent Navarro,
CALPURNIUS FLAVIUS Arxiu MUHBA Pere Vivas
The identified remains of fleshy fruits, yeasts, honey Plaça dels Traginers, Carrer del Correu Vell, Carrer Foment de Ciutat Vella Sara Tusquets
This pedestal bearing an inscription was located in del Regomir and Carrer de la Palla. Institut Cartogràfic de Catalunya Vanessa Triay
the foundations of the Gothic church of Santa Maria and cinnamon furnish examples of some of the Joan Roca Xavier González
A) SEPULCHRAL WAY F) WORKSHOPS AND del Pi, having been reused as a building material. It additives put into the wine to make it taste stronger
B) AQUEDUCTS FACTORIES had originally formed part of a monument in honour and lend its bouquet more power. Plan view of the Roman city: hypothesis created by Julia Beltrán de Heredia

C) NORTH-WEST GATEWAY G) NORTH-EAST WALL of the city councillor Quintus Calpurnius, which had
D) DOMUS H) SOUTH-EAST WALL probably been set up in the forum at the end of the
E) TEMPLE AND FORUM I) DOOR OF THE SEA 1st century AD.
 A
PLAÇA DE LA VILA DE MADRID PLAÇA NOVA PLAÇA DE RAMON BERENGUER EL GRAN CARRER DE DURAN I BAS AND PLAÇA NOVA
ROMAN SEPULCHRAL WAY NORTH-WEST GATEWAY NORTH-EAST WALL AQUEDUCTS
The Plaça de la Vila de Madrid was In the 1990s, when Avinguda de Plaça de Ramon Berenguer constitutes one Standing on Carrer de Duran i Bas,
designed by Adolf Florensa in the la Catedral was remodelled, the of the most notable historical cityscapes the arches of one of the Roman

L E
1950s, following the idea of the planners sought to emphasise in created in the 20th century. The first outline aqueducts are integrated into the

L’ÀNG
group of architects called GATCPAC terms of monuments the Roman for it, dating from 1911, was by Josep Puig party wall of a building dating
(Grup d’Arquitectes i Tècnics Cata- origins of Barcelona and the i Cadafalch. The count’s statue lends sym- from the 19th century. From 1958,

AL DE
lans per al Progrés de l’Arquitectura wall gateway by including the metry to the panorama formed by the wall, Plaça Nova was also the scene of
Contemporània) to open out the “Barcino” ideogram with letters B the royal chapel, the reconstructed Casa reconstruction of one of the arches

PORT
Ciutat Vella (Old City) district. Sur- designed by Joan Brossa. Padellàs and the Neo-Gothic anteroom of of the aqueduct, carried out at the
rounded by classicist buildings, Tinell. This is an entire heritage summary proposal of the archaeologist Josep

EL
it incorporated the archaeological of the “broad history” of Barcelona oriented Serra-Ràfols.

AV. D
remains of the Sepulchral Way. From the late Middle Ages down towards the Via Laietana.
to the 20th century, the towers of
From the end of the 16th century the the gateway in the wall at Plaça Carrer de la Tapineria was a com- The Roman aqueduct emerged in
area was occupied by the convent of Nova, which formed part of the ROADS mercial street made up of houses 1988 at Carrer de Duran i Bas,
the discalced Carmelite nuns, de- Palau del Bisbe (episcopal pal- backing onto the wall and built from when a building was demolished.
molished after the Civil War (1936- ace) and the Casa de l’Ardiaca In 2009, as the photograph shows,
1939) along with other buildings
AQUEDUCTS the late Middle Ages through to the
(chief dean’s house), were the 20th century. The steady demoli- an archaeological study was made
damaged in the bombardments. main visible features of old Bar- tion of those houses was part of of it. Earlier, in the planning work
Work began in the mid-1950s on the cino from the public space. a monumentalisation project that carried out from 1957 on Avinguda
archaeological excavation of the Ro- BATHS was carried on down to the 1960s, de la Catedral, the foundations of
man way, which had been discovered In the 4th century the north-west with the aim of freeing up the wall the two aqueducts had already been
by chance. gateway of the city had three open- and leaving it all visible from the discovered, right at the entrance to
ings — a central passageway for outside. Barcino.
The secondary Roman way, which vehicles and two side entrances dOmus
arrived at the city of Barcino via for people on foot. Flanked by two The water supply in Barcino was
The second Roman wall made the city
the southern gateway of the cardo semicircular towers, one of them ensured by means of wells, tanks
into a stronghold difficult to take, like
maximus, had on either side of constructed making use of the last mosaics C PLAÇA DE LA CATEDRAL
a great castle with 76 towers. That and two aqueducts that carried
it the burial sites of the working arches of the aqueducts, the city the water from the River Besòs and
aspect was to have a decisive effect on
classes from the 1st to the 3rd opened out from the decumanus from the Collserola mountains,
the future of the city, which had much
centuries AD. By the 4th century it maximus onto the crops on the plain. coming together at the north-east
better defences than any other Catalan

CARRER DEL BISBE

had fallen into disuse and became gateway in the wall.
town or city inherited from the Roman
covered over by the sediments from
period.
flash floods, thereby assisting its
conservation.

CAR
RER

Decumanus Maximus
DE
LA

BARCINO / BCN
BOQ
UER
IA G
Schematic plan view based on
archaeological research

VIA LAIETANA
F
3RD/4TH D
Foro

CENTURIES
RS
CORDE
E LOS
E CAR RER D

Cardo Maximus
Cardo Maximus
CARRER DE LA PRINCESA
PLAÇA DE
SANT JAUME CARRER DE JAUME I
CARRER DE LA FRUITA AND CARRER SANT HONORAT CARRER DEL PARADÍS CARRER DEL REGOMIR CARRER DE FERRAN CARRER DEL SOTSTINENT NAVARRO PLAÇA DEL REI
ROMAN DOMUS TEMPLE AND FORUM DOOR OF THE SEA SOUTH-EAST WALL WORKSHOPS AND FACTORIES
The archaeological remains that From 1905, the remains of the Roman Regomir corner forms an archi- The present-day Carrer del Sotsti- The vestiges of the Roman city that
can be visited in the subsoil were temple can be seen inside the head- tectural complex that is difficult nent Navarro follows the route of were found in 1931 when laying the

CARRER DE LA CIUTAT
discovered in 1999 during the re- quarters of the Centre Excursionista to decipher. But it is also a good the former road that ran around foundations for rebuilding Casa
furbishment of Casa Morell, today de Catalunya, as a result of the pro- place to reflect on the relation- H the walled precinct. It was devel- Padellàs, housing the Barcelona
occupied by offices of the Govern- ject undertaken by the architect Lluís ships between history (what oped in order to monumentalise History Museum, form part of the
ment of Catalonia (the Generalitat). Domènech i Montaner. The work was happened) and historical heritage the section of wall that had been archaeological subsoil that can
The building was constructed in carried out while a discussion was (the testimony that has come exposed when Via Laietana was now be visited beneath Plaça del
1851 according to a plan drawn up under way about whether the col- down to us), between documents opened up, to which it is connect- Rei. The route incorporated into the
by the architect Josep Oriol Mestres, umns should remain free-standing, or vestiges of the past and mod- ed via Plaça d’Emili Vilanova. museum passes through a district
making use of some of the original in the middle of a square, or left ern criteria of monumentalisation, of Barcino with an abundance of
windows of the mediaeval mansion. inside the mediaeval building. between Barcino and Barcelona. workshops and factories.

The archaeological excavation of the Right from the 15th century, the In the reconversion of Casa Once it had been decided that the When Via Laietana was opened, the

Decumanus Maximus
Sant Honorat domus revealed the columns and capitals set into the Gualbes into public facilities wall would be reconstructed, a aim was to enhance the mediaeval
superimposition of structures from buildings on Carrer del Paradís had from 1984 (Pati d’en Llimona), conflict arose between the scientific appearance of the area around the
very different epochs, quite usual been a strong focus of attention, the architect Ignasi de Solà- point of view, which required the cathedral, making it into a “Gothic
in the zones of the city that had giving rise to many different inter- Morales worked on the Roman new materials to be distinguished quarter”. The importance of the dis-
been occupied from early times. The pretations. It was only in the middle wall, testing out approaches in from the old, and the monumental coveries about Barcino made during
CAR

site open to the public allows that of the 19th century that it finally terms of shapes and materi- point of view, which called for a the excavations at Plaça del Rei under
RER

amalgam to be viewed, with the Ro- became clear that they formed part als different from those used greater formal mimesis. The final the direction of Agustí Duran i Sanpere
man vestiges of the domus sharing of a Roman temple. formerly, finally leaving the option arrived at in the 1950s was led to an increasing incorporation of
D’AV

space with various grain stores of a remains of the sea gateway to distinguish by brickwork the Roman features into the process of
mediaeval mansion. exposed in the subsoil. parts added to the original wall. monumentalisation.
INYÓ

The Roman remains in Carrer de The Temple, devoted to the cult of The main entrance into Barcino
I Over the centuries of prosperity
The lines of blocks that formed the
la Fruita and Carrer Sant Honorat the emperor Augustus, was locat- was the one that looked out over 4th century wall show its strength of High-Empire Barcino there
are those of a 4th century domus ed at the highest point of the city, the sea, its gateway flanked by and robustness. Those who built it extended north from the forum
or lordly residence richly decorated, presiding over the forum, Barcino’s doors for people on foot and an did not hesitate to reutilise materi- a whole series of agricultural
with central courtyard, portico and central square in which political, intense traffic from the beach als from previous constructions, and craft-manufacturing
rooms of substantial dimensions. The social, religious and economic and the port. This gateway has even sculpted items. That explains establishments, such as workshops
complex is completed by the vestiges life was conducted. Throughout to be seen as a basic organis- why headstones, pedestals and engaging in washing and dyeing
of three commercial establishments the course of history and down to ing focus of the Roman-epoch sculptures dating from the 1st garments, a fish-salting factory
(tabernae) backing onto the house today, the epicentre of political urban space connected with to 3rd centuries have been found and another turned over to
and opening onto one of the Roman power has remained close to the trading and transportation of inside the towers and also forming winemaking.
city’s most important streets. former Roman forum. goods. part of their outer walls.