Why this ride
116 km from Tarragona to Tarragona, about 2 h of riding. The stops in between: Triumphal Arch of Berá, Abric de Can Castellvi and back through Triumphal Arch of Berá. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The imperial cult enclosure and Abric de Can Castellvi
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 116 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 51
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. The imperial cult enclosure
When the Emperor Augustus died in AD 14, the people of Tarraco asked permission to build a temple to him, and Tiberius agreed. Tacitus records the request, and the rhetorician Quintilian preserves a joke from the emperor's lifetime: when the people of Tarraco reported that a palm tree had sprouted on his altar, Augustus replied that it showed how seldom they lit the fire on it. The imperial cult enclosure, the sacred precinct of the provincial capital, occupied the top of the hill, and what survives of it now lies under and beside the cathedral of Tarragona.
Read the complete The imperial cult enclosure write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The imperial cult enclosure is where the day begins. Next is Triumphal Arch of Berá.
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 25 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abric de Can Castellvi.
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 58 km into the recorded legs you reach Abric de Can Castellvi. Next is back through Triumphal Arch of Berá.
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 imperial cult enclosure.
5. The imperial cult enclosure
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The imperial cult enclosure write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at The imperial cult enclosure. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
The imperial cult enclosure to Triumphal Arch of Berá
The imperial cult enclosure → Triumphal Arch of Berá is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Triumphal Arch of Berá to Abric de Can Castellvi
Triumphal Arch of Berá → Abric de Can Castellvi is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abric de Can Castellví to back through Triumphal Arch of Berá
Abric de Can Castellví → back through Triumphal Arch of Berá is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Triumphal Arch of Berá to The imperial cult enclosure
back through Triumphal Arch of Berá → The imperial cult enclosure is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.