Village
Tortosa is the capital of Baix Ebre, in the province of Tarragona, an episcopal see and an agricultural, commercial and industrial centre that also integrates the districts of Jesús, Bítem, els Reguers, Campredó and Vinallop. It was probably the Iberian city of Hibera, capital of Ilercavonia, with its main settlement on the hill now occupied by the castle of la Suda; the Romans called it Dertosa, and in 714 it was occupied by the Muslims, under whose Umayyad rule it became the chief port of the lower Ebro, thanks to its harbour. In 1035 it became the taifa kingdom of Turtusha. It experienced another period of splendour after its Christian conquest by Count Ramon Berenguer IV in 1148 and during the Renaissance, a period the city has commemorated since 1996 with the Festa del Renaixement.
Monument
The nucli històric (historic centre) of Tortosa is the urban area that was enclosed by the 14th-century walls, a boundary the city did not outgrow until the 19th century, hemmed in between the Ebro and the mountains. After the 1148 reconquest by Ramon Berenguer IV the Jewish quarter (call) grew up here, later extended toward the Remolins district. The area around the cathedral and the Santa Clara and el Garrofer districts hold the greatest number of buildings of interest: from medieval times, the Seu (cathedral), the episcopal palace and the Despuig and Oriol palaces, and the convent of Santa Clara; from the Renaissance, the Reials Col·legis; and, already modernist, the Temple of the Reparación and the old slaughterhouse, today the Museum of Tortosa. The walls were restored in 1999.
Monument
Civil Gothic palace from the late 15th century, built on the banks of the Ebro in the 14th-15th-century urban expansion of Tortosa, today, since 1981, home to the territorial services of Culture. It belonged to the Oliver de Boteller family, the result of the union of the traditional nobility with the new mercantile bourgeoisie of 16th-century Tortosa, and hosted King Philip II in 1585. It suffered severe damage during the war of 1936-1939, and in 1962 its facade, austere and almost fortress-like in appearance, with an off-centre round-arched portal and a crest of decorative battlements, was moved to the plot occupied by the demolished Municipal Palace. A coffered ceiling from the original noble hall is also preserved and, attached to the wall, the 1587 plaque of the Taula de Canvi (exchange board) of Tortosa.
Monument
Seat of the diocese of Tortosa, located in the centre of the city on the banks of the river Ebro, on the site where archaeological excavations have revealed the Roman forum once stood. The current Gothic building was begun in 1347 on top of an earlier Romanesque cathedral, was first consecrated in 1441, and work continued up to the Baroque facade, started around 1620 and left unfinished in 1757; in 1931 it received the title of basilica. When Ramón Berenguer IV conquered the city in 1148 he handed over to Archbishop Bernardo Tort the great mosque, which was immediately converted into a cathedral, while the adjoining Muslim quarters came to house canonical life, established in 1153 under the rule of Saint Augustine and maintained until Pope Clement XIV secularised it in 1772.
Monument
The Gothic palace, built in the first third of the 14th century at the initiative of Bishop Berenguer de Prats and in use since 1332, is arranged around a courtyard with a cantilevered staircase and two galleries of pointed arches. The chapel, which the bishop himself had built in 1316, stands out for the ribbed vault of its apse and the sculptural work of its portal, with two pointed windows, a carved tympanum and four sculptures of bishops. The construction has recently been attributed to masters from the court of Aragon or from the French world, among them Pere Bonull, master builder of Santa Maria de Morella, and Tomàs de Sant Quintí, a French stonemason active in Tortosa at the same time. The diocese reached its greatest splendour in the 14th and 15th centuries, during the Western Schism.
Monument
The Reials Col·legis of Tortosa form the most important Renaissance monumental complex in Catalonia. It comprises the college of Sant Jaume i Sant Maties, founded in 1544 by Charles V for the education of young Moriscos and built from 1564, and the college of Sant Jordi i Sant Domènec, founded in 1368 and raised to the status of Estudi General in 1568; Philip II stayed at the convent of Sant Domènec during his 1585 visit. The former preserves the only Renaissance courtyard in Catalonia, with a sculpted frieze of nineteen royal couples, from Ramon Berenguer IV to Philip III, the work of Francisco de Montehermoso. After the expulsion of the Moriscos in 1610 it served to educate young people without means, and since 1997 it has housed the Historical Archive of the Baix Ebre region.
Monument
A citadel overlooking Tortosa, whose name -la Suda- comes from Arabic and simply means “castle” or “fortress”; the houses built up against its base formed the city's first urban core, sheltered by this fortification which served as its rearguard. Believed to have been built in the 10th century under Caliph Abd al-Rahman III, at the time of the reconquest it was divided into three independent castles, whose possession Count Ramon Berenguer IV shared out among the first knights who stormed the wall, among them Guillem Ramon I de Montcada and Pere de Torrelles i Sentmenat, keeping the third for himself. After the Christian conquest of 1148 it became a royal residence, frequented by Jaume I, and since 1972 it has operated as a state-run parador hotel.
Monument
Walled enclosure that reused 10th-century Andalusi stretches after the 1148 conquest and was extended around 1368-1369 as part of Pere el Cerimoniós's programme of fortifying towns against the war with Castile; stretches and towers survive, integrated into the present urban layout.
Activity
The Festa del Renaixement is held in Tortosa in the third week of July under the motto l'esplendor d'una ciutat del segle XVI (the splendour of a 16th-century city), and transforms the old town with recreational and cultural activities, set among emblematic buildings such as the Santa Maria basilica-cathedral, the Palau Episcopal, the Reials Col·legis and the walls of the Suda castle. Declared a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Nacional (Spain's highest national tourist-interest designation) and a Festa d'Interès Turístic de Catalunya (Catalonia's own tourist-interest designation), it mobilises more than 500 actors, 60 shows and 3,000 residents dressed in period costume, together with shopkeepers and tavern-keepers, and its high point is the parade and display of arms in honour of the banners of the Vegueria de Tortosa.
Activity
The Festa Major of Tortosa is held on the first Sunday of September in honour of la Mare de Déu de la Cinta, patroness of the city since 1863, with Santa Còrdula and Santa Càndida as co-patronesses (22 October); the city also celebrates the Festa del Renaixement in July, with a re-enactment of 16th-century life in the historic centre.
Activity
Tortosa's Festa Major d'Hivern is held in the city that Ramon Berenguer IV conquered from the Muslims on 31 December 1148, and where between 1413 and 1414 Pope Benedict XIII promoted the Disputation of Tortosa, sixty-seven sessions that forced the rabbis of the Crown of Aragón to debate the Talmud.
Activity
The Fira de Sant Antoni de Tortosa is held in a city that was a major olive-oil market until the war and the frosts of 1956 sank the sector, today covered by the Oli del Baix Ebre-Montsià Protected Designation of Origin.
Historical milestone
Ramon Berenguer IV took the Muslim city of Turtuixa on 31 December 1148, with Genoese support and that of the military orders, and incorporated the lower course of the Ebro into the Crown of Aragon. The conquest opened the Christian resettlement of the Terres de l'Ebre.
Historical milestone
A religious controversy promoted by Pope Benedict XIII that held 67 sessions between 7 February 1413 and 13 November 1414. It forced the rabbis of the Crown of Aragon to debate the Talmud and hastened the decline of their aljamas. More than a debate in the strict sense, it was a succession of indoctrination sessions intended to force the Jewish religious authorities to acknowledge the “errors” of their faith before their fellow believers, whose attendance as an audience was also compulsory by papal mandate. It is regarded as the most important interreligious debate between Christians and Jews in medieval Spain, begun in Tortosa and concluded in neighbouring San Mateo, now in the province of Castellón.
Historical milestone
Situated in the immediate rearguard of the Ebro front, the city was a repeated target of Francoist aviation between 1937 and 1939 and was left practically destroyed. The bombings erased a good part of the historic urban fabric beside the river.
Food and drink
A virgin olive oil with a protected designation of origin, made from the morruda, sevillenca and farga varieties across 27 municipalities of the two counties. Tortosa was a major olive oil market until the war and the frosts of 1956 crippled the sector. These are clear, transparent oils, ranging in colour from greenish yellow to golden depending on the harvest time, fruity in flavour at the start of the season and somewhat sweeter as it progresses, with a maximum acidity of 0.8 degrees. The designation has been listed in the EU register since 2008 and is sold in non-metallic containers of up to five litres bearing a label numbered by the Regulating Council.
Food and drink
Half-moon shaped pastries filled with angel-hair jam, baked and dusted with sugar, which are the identifying sweet of the city. They share the workshop with other local pieces such as the garrofetes del papa and the coquetes de sagí.