Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in Roda de Berà

What to see and do in Roda de Berà (Tarragonès, Tarragona): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 4 Monuments

How far each place is from the centre of Roda de Berà

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Spain › Catalonia › Tarragona › Tarragonès › Roda de Berà

What to see and do in Roda de Berà

Roda de Berà
Village
Roda de Berà is a municipality of the Tarragonès, in the province of Tarragona, with 8260 inhabitants, known for the Arc de Berà, a Roman arch that spanned the Via Augusta. Its current name, which was not consolidated until the mid-19th century, joins those of two linked settlements, Roda and Berà: the first, probably a namesake of Roda de Ter, from where its Christian resettlers would have come; the second, of Germanic origin, documented since 1010 and associated with the Gothic count Bera of Barcelona, who governed between 801 and 820. Before the merger, medieval documentation recorded Roda and Berà separately, and as early as the 14th century the spelling already fluctuated between Barà and Berà, typical of eastern Catalan.
Tower of el Cucurull
Monument
The Torre del Cucurull, also called the old castle of Roda, dominates Roda de Berà from the muntanya dels Molins, with wide visual control over the coast; it may be a tower documented in 1088, contemporary with that of the Mas de Nin. Built around the 10th century, it has a circular plan, with the lower three metres solid and about 3.5 metres in diameter; above, the inner diameter drops to 200 centimetres with walls 110 centimetres thick, of small stones and poor-quality lime mortar. The doorway does not survive; it must have opened more than six metres above the ground. The enclosing wall, better preserved to the south, delimited a precinct of about 18.5 by 13 metres; it is in total ruin, although it was restored in 2011 owing to the risk of collapse. Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection).
Mas de Nin
Monument
A farmhouse of medieval origin, almost a hamlet given its size, built around a pre-existing tower with a circular plan, about 10 metres high and 4 metres in diameter at the base, with a solid ground floor and two more storeys plus a terrace; at its upper part it preserves stone corbels that supported an old wooden machicolation. Unlike the nearby Torre del Cucurull, it does not stand at the highest point but halfway up the slope, with more limited visibility, so its function would have been defensive rather than a simple lookout; some identify it with the “Guardia de Bernard”, already mentioned in the 11th century. The complex was renovated in the 16th, 18th and 19th centuries, with a chamfered entrance from 1863-1871, and includes a threshing floor cut into the rock. Today it operates as a restaurant. Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection).
Castle of Berà
Monument
It served as a reference boundary in documents from 1040 and 1049; its name probably derives from Count Berà of Barcelona (9th century), who is thought to have fortified this frontier area of the Gaià. The original castle has vanished and is believed to have stood where the sanctuary of the Mare de Déu de Berà stands today; next to it rises a residential complex with a crenellated tower of defensive appearance, the result of a mid-20th-century renovation of the old 16th-18th-century farmhouse of Berà. A Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's top heritage-protection category).
Arch of Berà
Monument
A Roman honorific arch situated in Roda de Berà (Tarragonès), about twenty kilometres north of Tarragona, over the course of the old Via Augusta, today beneath the N-340 road. It was erected by testamentary disposition of Luci Licini Sura at the end of the 1st century BC and dedicated to the emperor Augustus, possibly to mark the boundaries of the territory dependent on Tárraco. It has a single opening and is built of local ashlar, with eight fluted pilasters topped by Corinthian capitals that support an entablature bearing an inscription referring to its construction.