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The Roman Circus of the City of Tarragona. 10 Years of Collaboration Between Architects and Archaeologists

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The Roman Circus of the City of Tarragona. 10 Years of Collaboration Between Architects and Archaeologists MANUSCRIT ACCEPTAT MANUSCRIT ACCEPTAT The Roman Circus of the City of Tarragona. 10 Years of Collaboration Between Architects and Archaeologists Pau Solà-MoralesJ. M. MaciasJ. M. Puche, J. M. ToldràI. Fernàndez Marcos C. (eds) Graphic Imprints: The Influence of Representation and Llibre Ideation Tools in Architecture. Springer, 2018 ISBN 978-3-319-93749-6 DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93749-6_83 Disponible 31 May 2018 Data de publicació 2018 en línia Per citar aquest document: Solà-Morales P., Macias J.M., Puche J.M., Toldrà J.M., Fernàndez I. (2019) The Roman Circus of the City of Tarragona. 10 Years of Collaboration Between Architects and Archaeologists. In: Marcos C. (eds) Graphic Imprints. EGA 2018. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93749-6_83 Aquest arxiu PDF conté el manuscrit acceptat per a la seva publicació. 1 The Roman circus of the city of Tarragona. 10 years of collaboration between architects and archaeologists Solà-Morales, P. (1), Macias, J.M. (2), Puche, J.M. (2), Toldrà, J.M. (1), Fernàndez, I. (1) 1: School of Architecture -URV 2: Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology Abstract: The Roman circus of the city of historic centre of Tarragona. Tarragona. 10 years of collaboration between architects and archaeologists Keywords: Tarraco; Drawing; Archaeology; roman We are not the first to deal with the Roman circus of circus; MDCS Tarragona, perhaps one of the most drawn Roman buildings of the Iberian Peninsula, although the 1. Introduction insistence in its documentation has not produced a When a whole roman circus, with an extension of four complete and convincing planimetry. The hectares, is an indivisible part of a contemporary city complicated articulation of the circus with the with an historical and historiographical tradition, such historical centre of the city makes it difficult to as that of Tarragona, there is –understandably and elaborate a reliable synthesis of its architectural fortunately– a cartographic and graphic legacy of great configuration. But, taking advantage of the potential magnitude. This reflects the evolution of resources and in the collaboration between the Technical School of precepts of the graphic documentation, but also the Architecture (ETSA) of the Rovira i Virgili technological limitations inherent to each historical University (URV) and the Catalan Institute of period. On the one hand, the cartographic Classical Archaeology (ICAC), it is also an documentation of the circus is abundant because the city opportunity to combine the different skills of was a military center until the middle of the 19th century, architects and archaeologists for the interpretation of and the circus’ remains were part of its defensive historical architecture. system. These documents already show the incidence of Aware of the deficiencies in the graphic the monument in the configuration of the topography of documentation of the Roman circus of Tarragona, it the city’s historical precinct. And, on the other hand, was decided to choose this monument as an area of starting with the professionalization of archaeology in methodological test, where the students of the the 1980’s, the planimetries obtained in subsoil subjects mentioned above have developed their excavations have proliferated, even though numerous practical works. and old urban reforms have caused irremediably patrimonial destructions, in some cases. (See historical The final result is a heterogeneous set of graphic cartography compilation in Dupré et alii 1988 and representations of the same monument, product of the technical documentation in Macias et alii 2007). different visions of its authors and of the evolution of the techniques used in their elaboration. In the present communication we show a synthesis of the works For all these reasons, after almost forty years of carried out, thanks to which a more intense approach documentation there is abundant and varied technical to the reality of the circus is achieved, understanding information, produced by different hands and different that the richness of the architectural ensemble comes technological resources. But the imprecision of the from both the Roman remains and their overlap with municipal topographical base –used as a reference–, the medieval and contemporary urban form of the obtained in yesteryear from aerial orthophotos, 1 together with the variability of the "traditional” characteristics, it acquired relevance in the conquest and topographical basepoints –often hidden or the subsequent hierarchical urban structuring of transformed by the modifications of the paved Hispania. Tarraco reached the capital of the prouincia streets–, make it impossible to unify, precisely and Hispania Citerior, during three centuries the largest in in three-dimensions, the information collected in a the Empire. Tarraco developed a great monumental building of this magnitude and complexity (Figure project on top of the hill, where there was an extensive 1). militarized zone, in the military context of the conquest. The availability of public land allowed, with the arrival In this context it is worth mentioning the of Pax Augusta, to raise a 19Ha monumental sector collaboration between the School of Architecture of inside the walls, articulated around a square of worship the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (ETSA-URV) and to the emperor, and a square of administration and the Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology (ICAC) political representation. And, at its feet, the Roman for the documentation of the historical heritage of the circus, as a closing area with respect to the residential city. city. It is a research included in the activities of Research Among the Imperial circus architectures, this intramural Group on Architectural Heritage and Archaeology – situation constitutes an exception since these precincts, ARCHCRA (ICAC–ETSA/URV).It is not solely a because of their extension, were traditionally located in technical update, based on the new MDCS or the surroundings of the city, where the land value was topographic bases positioned by GPS, but it has also lower. Its urban position was the cause that, besides been a dialectical scenario, not always coincident, being a ludic building, it was an element of separation between archaeological and architectural methods and road connection between the upper squares and the and reasoning (Solà-Morales et alii 2014). lower city. The circus had to articulate the bidirectional traffic of the Tarraconenses between both urban sectors. 2. Characteristics and problems of the roman Therefore, its constructive solidity was based on a circus skeleton of caementa that has made the building a The current city of Tarragona –the ancient Tarraco– perennial and determinant element in the urban was the port of entry of the Roman Empire in the development of Tarragona. Iberian Peninsula. It was an Iberian settlement from the 6th century B.C. and, due to its geostrategic Over the centuries a symbiotic relationship has been established between the building and various 2 Impronta gráfica. Sobre la influencia de las herramientas de representación e ideación en la arquitectura overlapping urban events, in a process that –at the destructive processes of our society . same time– demolished and preserved its architectural vestiges. Most of the walls of stone 3. Interdiscipline and training ashlars were extracted and reused in the medieval or Since its foundation in 2005, the School of Architecture modern city. But each wall of lime mortar that was of Rovira i Virgili University (ETSA-URV) has reused as a foundation was a preserved vestige for the collaborated with the Catalan Institute of Classical documentation of the future. At an urban and Archaeology (ICAC) in the field of architectural historical level, three processes stand out. The first heritage. The School's interest in expanding its research has been the stratigraphic superposition on the and academic horizons has required looking for Roman remains, produced from the urban reforms of interdisciplinary work spaces, on the one hand, and the medieval period. It was during this period that the developing a research niche in which to develop and major transformations took place, as a new road disseminate its own "personality", on the other. This network was created that compartmentalized the will has led them to the territories of archaeology, and circus arena and created a new circulation structure. especially to all that concerns the subdiscipline of Some streets were traced inside the arena, and others “archaeology of architecture” and “archaeology of over the old stands defining the current urban construction”. In this framework, architects contribute appearance. While both these processes occurred on their technical, constructive and drawing knowledge, the outside of the architectural remains, a third one while archaeologists provide the historical context and occurred in the very inside of the Roman building: the its descriptive and stratigraphic rigor. The fruits of this reuse of the lime-and-mortar-concrete vaults that coexistence should not be limited to the study of the supported the old stands. In this way, all the vaults past, but also to the diachronic analysis of our heritage were reused as old warehouses and, nowadays, as reality –in many cases the result of processes of ludic centres or restaurants, within the process of transformation, durability and readaptation. Thus, new tourist transformation of the historic centre. graduated architects will take full consciousness of
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