28 August 26
Tarragona
We took the crowded regional train from Hospitalet l’Infant to Tarragona, the capital of Roman Spain. It was hot when we arrived in this beautiful city on the cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean. By luck, we hit the fiesta del Sant Magí, one of the martyrs killed in the Roman amphitheater we visited in the heat of the afternoon. We saw sardanas, the circular Catalan dances, being performed in the main square, and castells — human pyramids — precariously erecting themselves in front of one of the churches. And we took ourselves to the Cathedral for some more cloister sketching. (We encountered two separate couples getting their wedding photographs taken at the Cathedral, which was entertaining for us if not them.) The cathedral was built on the site of the Augustan temple of Tarraco and is dedicated to Santa Tecla (also martyred, though not in Tarragona). The word “tecla” in Spanish means key, as in keys on a keyboard. I’ve yet to discover whether there is any connection between them…
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