The site where we are now belongs to all of us. It is the unbroken history over the centuries of a key part of our city. It is a living site we have already learned a lot from, and we hope to continue learning from it in the future.

Classical sources (Livy) mention a major Iberian city of the Ilercavones tribe (ethnic group or people) on the lower stretch of the Ebro River which they call Hibera during the clashes between the Romans and Carthaginians in the Second Punic War in the late 3rd century BCE. From then on the city came under the control of Rome.

Hibera was an oppidum, a fortified human settlement set on high ground, in this case on Suda hill. The Roman authorities turned this indigenous settlement into a centre of governance and its sole representative for a large part of Ilercavonia. This strengthened the city’s position while most of the ancient Iberian settlements in the region were simply abandoned.

This indigenous settlement was the origin of the Dertosa of the Roman period. We know that the two names, Hibera and Dertosa, were used together at least until the first half of the 1st century CE during the reign of Emperor Tiberius because there was a mint in the city which produced coins in two successive issues.

It was not common in Roman Hispania to have more than one name for a city, although we do know of other examples.

Over time, Rome’s military conquest led to the complete Romanisation of the territory and the absorption of the indigenous society into Roman administrative and economic structures.

Dertosa was founded as a prime enclave as it lay on the junction of the Via Augusta with the River Ebro, which in Roman times was navigable as far as Vareia (present-day Logroño) according to Pliny the Elder (1st century CE). This meant that the Ebro and Dertosa were crucial to communications and trade relations between the inland areas of the peninsula and the Mediterranean.

Dertosa was a city with a privileged legal status, a municipium under Roman law possibly as early as the time of Julius Caesar, and the most important in the region between Tarraco and Saguntum. Its prominent position called for substantial public spaces (a large forum with temples and administrative buildings), port and storage facilities and also places for leisure (baths, shows, etc.), for trading and selling products and for housing.

Dertosa covered a vast area which included a large part of the lower reaches of the River Ebro. We think that to the north it reached a point near the Coll de Balaguer mountain pass, after which Tarraco’s territory began, and to the south it stretched to not far short of Saguntum.

Historical sources say very little about the city in Late Antiquity. It was probably conquered by the Visigoths at the same time as Tarraco which was seized by King Euric’s forces in 478. It seems that relations between the conquerors and the local Hispano-Roman elites were not always easy in these early times as evidenced by the short-lived rebellion of the usurper Petrus, captured in Dertosa and executed by the Visigoths in 506.

Despite these problems, Dertosa was still a vibrant city and soon became an episcopal see. The first written evidence of the Diocese of Dertosa dates back to 516 when Bishop Urs took part in the Council of Tarragona. Later on Bishop Asellus attended the Council of Barcelona in 540. The conflicts between Arians and Catholics were apparent at the Third Council of Toledo in 589 which was attended by not one but two bishops from Dertosa, the Catholic Bishop Julian and the Arian Bishop Froiscle. The latter finally converted to Catholicism following the example of King Reccared and the establishment of Catholicism as the official religion of the Visigothic kingdom at the expense of Arianism (a Christian religious doctrine which denied the divinity of Jesus as the son of God). Furthermore, at that time an imposing ring of walls had just been built, an enormous civil engineering project which is evidence of the city’s material and human capacity during this period. Archaeology has also revealed that there was considerable trading and port traffic in Dertosa in the 5th and 6th centuries involving a large number of products from all over the Mediterranean.

 

Between 711 and 714, Islamic troops conquered the Iberian Peninsula. The name Dertosa, adapted to Arabic phonetics, became Turtuixa. After a period of instability, the borders were settled in the 9th century and Turtuxa became an important enclave in the north-eastern part of the Andalusian domain, a key component in the defensive system of the Upper March in the Ebro River valley. The Upper March was an administrative and military division of al-Andalus which stretched roughly from the Mediterranean coast to the source of the Tagus and Douro rivers.

North African geographer al-Himyari’s description of the city of Tortosa is the most complete and detailed we have. Here is an extract from it: “The city proper extends to the west and north of the alcassaba and is surrounded by a stone wall, which was built by the Umayyads along the line of an ancient city wall. This wall is pierced by four gates, all of which are iron-clad.” Archaeological studies have confirmed that the former Late Antiquity city walls were indeed replaced and restored in the Andalusian period. The walls inherited from the Roman city more than fulfilled their purpose by holding off the Carolingian imperial attacks between 804 and 811, as recorded in the Vita Ludovici Pii which describes the siege of the city in 808. On that occasion, the Frankish armies unsuccessfully attacked it with siege engines for forty days.

The alcassaba, which is today’s Suda Castle, was a fortress in the city and the residence of a military governor in charge of a garrison.

Starting in the 10th century, Turtuixa flourished under the auspices of the Caliphate’s court. Proof of this patronage was improvements to the fortifications, building shipyards and construction of a great mosque with five naves, probably the most important mosque in Catalonia during the Middle Ages. There were also major town planning improvements involving building neighbourhoods hosting large houses featuring central courtyards and elaborate technical sophistication along with extensive, carefully planned outlying districts where humble dwellings rubbed shoulders with small workshops, shops and warehouses in streets with a grid layout. At this time the sewage system achieved a level of complexity which was not regained until the 20th century. This city-building boom was matched by a remarkable intellectual flowering and Turtuixa was the cradle of numerous sages and masters who travelled throughout the Islamic world to acquire and share knowledge. After the fall of the Caliphate, Turtuixa subsequently became a small taifa principality, a city-state very often in the grip of the powerful Islamic kingdom of Zaragoza.

Turtuixa and its territory were conquered in 1148 by the Count of Barcelona Ramon Berenguer IV at the head of a Croatian force which included the Genoese fleet and troops. It was a long siege lasting six months and only ended when Suda Castle surrendered to the Christian allies.

Once the city had been taken, the Count reorganised the settlement and distribution of property in the conquered territories in the interests of the victors. Although at first the Count preserved the properties of the Muslim inhabitants of Tortosa and their freedom of worship, the documentation shows that most of the city was soon in the hands of Christian lordships and owners including the recently restored bishopric, the Order of the Knights Templar and the Montcada family. A year later, the Count handed over the old Islamic-era shipyards in the northwest corner of the city to the Jews in order to build the original Jewish quarter. Its growth meant it had to be enlarged and a new one was built in the 13th century.

Tortosa remained an important trading centre during the Late Middle Ages and its merchants engaged in highly productive business with the most bustling cities in the Mediterranean. The Ebro furnished numerous advantages including a major outlet for surplus grain and wool from Castile and Aragon which was shipped to Barcelona, Valencia, France and Italy. At this time Tortosa’s jurisdictional district was very large and took in almost the whole of the present-day el Baix Ebre and Montsià counties.

Thriving trade, population growth, the municipal government building large facilities and the bishopric made Tortosa into one of medieval Catalonia’s leading conurbations.

After the plagues, wars and disasters which marred the 14th and 15th centuries, from the second half of the 16th century onwards the city’s population picked up again and Tortosa became the fifth largest city in the Principality. Although economic and demographic recovery was generally modest and the living conditions of most people did not get much better, in Tortosa this recovery was coupled with the resumption of large-scale, high-profile construction work such as building and refurbishing many of the local oligarchy’s palaces and also major projects including the Royal Colleges, one of the most outstanding examples of Renaissance architecture in Catalonia.

 

 

PHOTO 1.

Loom weights and spindle whorls

Fired clay

Les Planetes, Tortosa

4th century BCE to 5th century BCE

On display: Museum of Tortosa

 

 

PHOTO 2.

Censer

Terracotta made with mould

El Bordisa, Camarles

4th century BCE to 3rd century BCE

On display: Museum of Tortosa

 

 

PHOTO 3.

As coin from Ilercavònia-Dertosa

Bronze

Planes de Morá, Garcia

1st century BCE – 1st century CE

On display: Museum of Tortosa

 

 

 

PHOTO 4.

Inscription with reference to the Ravenna fleet

Marble

Found at Casa del Canonge Navàs, Tortosa

2nd-3rd century CE

On display: Museum of Tortosa

 

 

 

PHOTO 5.

Anchor stock

Lead

L’Ampolla

Roman period

On display: Museum of Tortosa

 

 

 

PHOTO 6.

Stele of Aulus Caecilius

Sandstone

Suda Castle, Tortosa

2nd century CE

On display: Museum of Tortosa

 

 

 

PHOTO 7.

Brooches

Bronze

Croera Street in Tortosa

6th-7th centuries CE

 

 

 

PHOTO 8.

Pilasters and column

Marble

Tortosa Cathedral

6th-7th centuries CE

On display: Museum of Tortosa

 

 

 

PHOTO 9.

Commemorative plaque for the shipyards

Stone

Tortosa Cathedral

10th century

On display: Tortosa Cathedral permanent exhibition

 

 

 

PHOTO 10.

Jugs with handles bearing a stud appendage

Ceramic

Site: Sant Jaume Square

11th century

On display: Museum of Tortosa

 

 

 

PHOTO 11.

Jug with filter

Ceramic

Suda Castle

11th century

On display: Museum of Tortosa

 

 

 

PHOTO 12.

Dirham from the Turtuxa mint

Silver

11th century

On display: Museum of Tortosa

 

 

 

PHOTO 13.

Settlement Charter

Paper

1149

Baix Ebre County Archive, Tortosa

 

 

 

PHOTO 14.

Commemorative plaque for the consecration of the Romanesque Cathedral

Stone

Santa Maria Cathedral of Tortosa

1178

On display: Tortosa Cathedral

 

 

 

 

PHOTO 15.

The veguer’s seal

White wax

14th century

On display: Museum of Tortosa

 

 

 

PHOTO 16.

Notebook with a drawing of the veguer’s standard-bearer

Paper

1431

On display: Museum of Tortosa