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September 2003

Catalonia - Tarragona and Poblet

David Aaronson
2005-09-27 21:20:16

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Tarragona, capital of southern Catalonia was our last stop in Spain. It started out for us as sort of a whim, we thought we'd like to spend the last day somewhere a little calmer and less hectic than Barcelona. It turned out to be a very pleasant town and rather popular with senior citizen British tour groups. This is the coast as seen from downtown Tarragona which sits up on a hill (1). The beaches are supposedly average and it seems the most popular activity along the shore is eating at any of the dozen or so seafood restaurants featuring just-off-the-boat fish and shellfish.

Unassuming from the front this is Tarragona's cathedral which sits on top of the hill which is old Tarragona (although not as old as some of Tarragona) (2). From the outside this looks like another Spanish cathedral crammed into the old part of town. Actually, it is, the cathedral itself is nice if not spectacular, but it's the museum inside which is really worth seeing.

Once inside you get an idea of just how big the place really is. Some of the cloisters can be visited for free, but that's because they're empty. The rest of the cloisters, the main cathedral and Museu Diocesa (Diocese Museum) require an admission fee which is well worth it.

Here's Melanie in front of one of the endless display cases of monstrances, chalices and reliquaries (oh my) (3). You can see more bits of Saints than you'd ever want to see, mostly finger bones, hair, ears, blood, sometimes their clothing. Also featured are an array of tapestries, paintings, wood carvings (nearly all of which seem to be of the virgin Mary) and some Roman objects just for good measure.

Several rooms had wood-beamed ceilings covered in coats of arms of Tarragona and surrounding areas. Luckily your admission includes a handy guide detailing all 250 or so objects in the museum, plus all the tapestries, paintings and shrines ...