Numerous studies, investigations, and excavations have allowed us to learn increasingly more about the history of Barcino, the Roman colony founded by Emperor Augustus in the 1st century. We can learn about their diet, how they cultivated oysters, how they bid farewell to the dead and which gods they worshipped, how they planned their streets, and how they built them. Research also demonstrates that nothing is immutable and that everything is open to debate. And debate took place this Tuesday during archaeologist Jordi Amorós's lecture on... the biggest archaeological find in the last thirty years in BarcelonaA monumental pavement from the Barcelona forum. A hundred people, many of them archaeologists and historians, filled the El Born auditorium, and more than fifty people followed the event via live stream.

The Archaeological Complex of TarracoThe Plaça del Rei, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000, is one of the most important testimonies to the Roman presence on the Iberian Peninsula and in the western Mediterranean. It is an invaluable heritage, and the institutions that preserve it have experienced some turbulent years. The National Archaeological Museum of Tarragona (MNAT) closed the Plaça del Rei space in 2018, and eight years later, the plan is to reopen it at the end of 2026 with a new museography after an investment of more than 9.2 million euros. Meanwhile, the NecropolisThe site, containing 2,051 tombs spanning from the 3rd to the mid-5th century, is also undergoing renovations, with an investment of 8.9 million euros. This open-air burial complex is the most important in the Mediterranean and was already closed for an extended period, from 1992 to 2012. It is expected to partially reopen in June. These are just some of the challenges facing Elena Juncosa, who in January took over from Mònica Borrell At the helm of the MNAT. Selected through a public competition, she was director of the Mas Miró Foundation (2015-2025), and will be responsible for managing not only the museum and the necropolis, but also all the dependent monuments and archaeological sites: the Tarraco theater, the Tower of the Scipios, the Mèdolc quarry, the old town, and the Arch of Berà.

Pompeii, whose excavation began in the 18th century, is like a vast encyclopedia to which new pages are added every day thanks to the work of archaeologists. There is a great deal of research surrounding the city that disappeared in October of 79 AD, when Mount Vesuvius violently spewed a deadly cloud of tephra and superheated gases. The exhibition The Last Days of Pompeii, which opens on March 20 at the Victoria Eugenia Palace.temporary headquarters of Ideal while the works are carried out in the Poblenou space— It explains part of the archaeological research, but above all, it's a truly immersive adventure.

The Pyrenees are not 19th-century California, when thousands of people from all over the world flocked there in search of fortune, nor are they South Africa. Even so, there were also gold mines there that the Romans exploited. This has been demonstrated, for the first time, by a study from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and the University of A Coruña. "We know that the Guilleteras mines in All (Cerdanya) were exploited between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD. We have indications that there must have been more mines in the Pyrenees, but that they must have been abandoned when they found more profitable ones elsewhere, such as Las Médulas (León), or in northern Portugal," the study explains.

When the Romans arrived in what would become Barcelona between 15 and 13 BC, they were looking for the best location to found a colony between the prosperous Emporiae (Empúries) on the north coast and Tarraco (Tarragona) on the south coast. The chosen site was the summit of Mons Tàber, a small hill overlooking the sea and the plain, where Plaça Sant Jaume is located today. The colony, with the full name of Iulia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino, grew rapidly, and in the 1st century AD it was walled and a forum was built. The construction work on the Gran Hotel Barcino, at number 3 Carrer Hércules, has unearthed an extraordinarily well-preserved section of this central element of Roman city life. The remains will be preserved and can be viewed in a museum space within the hotel.