Free visit to the Tower of the Scipios in Tarragona

The so-called Tower of the Scipios is the best preserved funerary monument in Roman Tarragona. If we approach the city by the N-340, we will find, about six kilometers away, this construction mistakenly interpreted as the burial place of the Scipio brothers.

The Romans were prohibited from cremating or burying the deceased within the city. For this reason, they always did it outside the wall and, normally, next to the tracks.

As they approached the city, the travelers who passed through the road found a large number of funerary monuments that were more or less spectacular, depending on the economic capacity of the relatives of the deceased. Roman families wanted the pedestrian passing near the monument to keep the memory of the deceased alive, while the construction of large funerary monuments served to demonstrate their status.

The Tower of the Scipios is, most likely, a family mausoleum built in memory of a married couple or two brothers. The monument was located on the site where the Via Augusta passed through the land owned by the family.

Although incomplete today, it is a typical tower-shaped funerary monument. Inside there would have been the burial chamber intended to store the ashes of the deceased.

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