The Circus and Abric de Can Castellvi

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. The Circus

   Chariots in Tarragona raced beneath the walls of the upper city, and the great circus where they ran is still there, though it is hard to see as a whole, because the medieval and modern town grew over it. The Circus was built in the late first century AD, and it was well over three hundred metres long, with room for many thousands of spectators. Today you find its vaulted corridors under the Plaça de la Font and its curved stands incorporated into the buildings around it, with a tower, the Torre del Pretori, rising over one end. The legend says that Pontius Pilate was born here, or at least lived in the tower, a story with no historical basis but which the Tarragonans like to repeat.

   Read the complete The Circus write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The Circus is where the day begins. Next is Triumphal Arch of Berá.

2. 2. Triumphal Arch of Berá

   For centuries traffic on the main coastal road of Catalonia drove straight through a Roman triumphal arch. The Arc de Berà stands on the line of the Via Augusta, the great Roman road from the Pyrenees to Cádiz, about twenty kilometres northeast of Tarragona, and until the road was diverted around it in the late twentieth century, cars and trucks passed under its single span. It was built at the end of the first century BC, and an inscription records that it was erected according to the will of Lucius Licinius Sura, a figure whose identity historians still discuss. It is part of the UNESCO listing for the Roman remains of Tarraco.

   Read the complete Triumphal Arch of Berá write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Triumphal Arch of Berá comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abric de Can Castellvi.

3. 3. Abric de Can Castellví

   The Penedès is wine country, and the landscape around Vilafranca del Penedès is a patchwork of vineyards rolling away toward the Montserrat massif in the north and the limestone hills of the Garraf in the south. Abric de Can Castellví is a small rock shelter in this landscape, one of the many sites of Levantine and schematic rock art scattered across Catalonia and included in the UNESCO serial site of the rock art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. Like many such sites, it is modest in appearance, a hollow in the rock where faint painted figures have survived thousands of years, and access is often limited to protect the art.

   Read the complete Abric de Can Castellvi write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 59 km into the recorded legs you reach Abric de Can Castellvi. Next is back through Triumphal Arch of Berá.

4. 4. back through Triumphal Arch of Berá

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Triumphal Arch of Berá write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Triumphal Arch of Berá, late in the day. Next is The Circus.

5. 5. The Circus

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete The Circus write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at The Circus. That is the ride.