{"id":3641,"date":"2013-01-17T18:13:29","date_gmt":"2013-01-17T17:13:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tarragonaexperience.com\/2013\/01\/17\/the-watchtower-of-tarragona\/"},"modified":"2013-01-17T18:13:29","modified_gmt":"2013-01-17T17:13:29","slug":"the-watchtower-of-tarragona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarragonaexperience.com\/en\/2013\/01\/17\/the-watchtower-of-tarragona\/","title":{"rendered":"The watchtower of Tarragona"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"campanarCatedral01\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We find ourselves on the highest city spot, about 70 metres high. The Mediterranean Sea is usually very quite, but today, in mid-January, it\u2019s choppy and lively when seen from a bird\u2019s eye view. Wind is really helping in this matter. In fact, from up above the Tarragona Cathedral<\/a><\/b> bell tower, everything looks different and easier to comprehend. First, we hear four sweet peals; and then, twelve loud and long ones announcing it\u2019s already midday. Absolute silence. We admire the view completely astonished.<\/p>\n

Paco Tovar<\/b> and Julio Villar<\/b>, the Argos Serveis Culturals<\/a><\/i><\/b> guides, the company behind this exclusive guided visit, point and outline Tarraco<\/i>\u2019s profile with their arms, the very first city founded by the Romans out of Italy: the walls, the Round Path, the large entrance gates, the monuments\u2026 They point at one spot or another trying to follow the roman city\u2019s evolution during the most important periods of history it has gone through. We talk about the medieval, the Guerra del Franc\u00e8s<\/i> (Peninsular War) siege, the way national soldiery entered the city during the civil war, and the Tarragona of today. Paco and Julio really are a fount of wisdom when it comes to anecdotes and legends: they will tell you all about them.<\/p>\n

In order to get up here, we have gone up 196 steps on three stages. The guides are young, but considerate. While going up, we have been able to spot every scar the Cathedral preserves in its skin, indelible witnesses of the different periods it has lived through: autographs from the roman craftsmen and artisans age, all sort of ammunition\u2019s impacts from different conflicts, graphite sketches from particular periods\u2026 Stubborn history does always repeat itself.<\/p>\n

The Cathedral\u2019s bell tower visit has, though, a preamble that allows the visitor to place himself. We start with the Diocesan Museum, where animage suggests where we would have been about 1.900 years ago. It is a huge leap back in time, and we struggle to travel through this kind of time tunnel. Once you have gone across the large museum entrance gate, you soon realise it is only two roman walls that are withstanding the Cathedral cloister: one, which is visible, and the other, not shown just yet due to restoration. If you are passionate about history, and you stare at the impressive roman wall, with its beautiful ashlars, you can\u2019t help but getting goose bumps. You are right in front of a wall from the 1st<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n

\"Mur<\/a><\/p>\n

On the other hand, its back, the one facing the Cloister, is from the 12th<\/sup> century. The atmosphere it creates is original, personal, unique, and it is only to be found in a few cloisters. Opposite the Cloister\u2019s Mother Mary\u2019s chapel, there is a grave that will definitely attract your attention. In it, a 1641 battleship captain lays to rest, whose name was Francisco Plaza, and got everlastingly known for being \u201cthe tallest man of our time, whose stature went beyond 12 foot\u201d (2.20 metres).<\/p>\n

Inside the cloister, in disguise on two of the several existing capitals, you can find the \u201cman of the three faces\u201d and the \u201crats procession\u201d. If you manage to find them, boy, are you a great explorer! If you don\u2019t, the guide will nicely help you. The \u201cman of the three faces\u201d was the own sculpture\u2019s decision who, on a particular point of the cloister, carved three faces into one, or one into three, depending on the way you look at it.<\/p>\n

Regarding the \u201crats procession\u201d, we can find a deeper meaning about it. On a first scene, the capital shows a rats procession carrying a dead cat (or at least, that is what it seems) hanging on a stick. It is a festive image, of celebration, since that cat was to torture them the way nobody else knows. On the second scene, though, the cat is devouring them. It was not dead, but only pretending. The moral has to do with temptation: we should not believe for one moment we are in control of it, because we could fall into it unexpectedly\u2026<\/p>\n

Before going up the 196 steps that will take us to the highest point of the Cathedral, we make a mandatory stop to admire the \u201cSanta Tecla and Sant Pau\u201d fresco, at the \u201cSastres\u201d chapel, one of the recently restored paintings from the 14th<\/sup> century. It\u2019s not the same in here than in Italy, cultural capital par excellence, where most works from that period were signed so we know to whom they belong. Our works are anonymous. The aforementioned painting does shine these days, but, not that long ago, it was merely showing two heads and you could just sense its old polychrome look. The scene is representing, on one of the sides, the Mother of God and the Baby Jesus together with the archbishop of Tarragona, Pere de Clasquer\u00ed. On the other side, \u201cSanta Tecla and Sant Pau\u201d are praying in front of the archbishop\u2019s mortal remains.<\/p>\n

\"Fresc\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At last, the bell tower climb begins. First stop, after fifty-one steps, allows us to visit the monk\u2019s room, the spaces where the people working for the Cathedral used to live: caretakers, servants,\u2026 We are now at the roman area of the square-floored enclosure. We resume our climb for another 53 steps. We find ourselves at the clock room, where there is still the original mechanism from the 16th<\/sup> century, and also the one from the second clock that worked from 1882 until 1986. Paco Tovar claims both of them would still work today with a few minor repairs.<\/p>\n

The third climb is the final one, or nearly. First of all, you enter the place where the big bells used on important religious services and local festivities are. Above of all them, right in the middle, the \u201cFructuosa\u201d, from 1313, which needs two people just to turn it round. From this spot, we can finally go for the peak, only fifty-odd steps away. At the very top, there is the \u201cCapona\u201d, the only civic bell existing in the Cathedral, since it was paid by the local government. Its emblems report it so. And you already know what else is to come, up at the watchtower. Now, it is only for you to go and see it.<\/p>\n

By, @irodon<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n