The square at kilometer zero in Tarragona
For decades now, many of the most renowned squares in the Western world have been transformed into large roundabouts designed for vehicular traffic, relegating pedestrians to the periphery—or even just the sidewalks—of these spaces. This metamorphosis has profoundly altered our understanding of the square: it is no longer the meeting place and social hub our grandparents knew, but a thoroughfare, subject to the logic of the vehicle.
In Tarragona, the quintessential roundabout is the one that welcomes all those arriving from the Camp de Tarraco: Plaça Imperial Tarraco. An entry and distribution point, a symbolic and functional center at once, this large circle encapsulates, like no other, the tension between two cities: the one designed for cars and the one experienced on foot. A kind of local "kilometer zero," where concrete and history eye each other askance.
The space, key to understanding Tarragona's expansion, took shape between the 1950s and 60s, when the city began to redefine itself according to the parameters of progress and power. For years, this area concentrated administrative activity and became, in a way, the modern forum—but without the grace or humanity of its Roman predecessor.
The flagship of all this is, obviously, the Civil Government building, designed by the Galician architect Alejandro de la Sota—this building was already the centerpiece of another Now Discover–Around it, the architecture has mutated over time, from late Francoist rationalism and institutional eclecticism to the more anonymous volumes of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. All of this forms a mosaic that speaks of the city we wanted to be and, in part, still are: a Tarragona caught between speed and memory, between the roundabout and the plaza.
On the other side of Andorra Avenue, that building that made headlines around 2023, only to become a death trap for birds passing through the plaza. And next to the old Faculty of Arts of the URV, which was also the former Boarding School of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, also known asLa Salle. A group of buildings erected in the 1920s with Neo-Gothic and Classical proportions by the prolific Josep Maria Pujol i de Barberà.
Between Prat de la Riba Avenue and Pere Martell Street, a fine pair of landmarks, stands the headquarters of Caixa Tarragona. A building designed by Salvador Ripoll Sahagún with the special artistic participation of ceramist Julio Bono and sculptor Joan Rebull. A building that will soon house offices and spaces for the Tarragona Provincial Council.
The least distinctive buildings in the square—or roundabout—are surely those adjacent to Roma Avenue: the bus station and the State Administration building for Provincial Services.
Today, Imperial Tarraco Square remains more of a roundabout than a square. Traffic flows through it, pedestrians skirt its edges, and the city uses it almost without a glance. But beneath that circle of asphalt, the spirit of a plaza still beats discreetly, waiting to be rediscovered. Perhaps one day—when Tarragona is once again experienced from a pedestrian's perspective rather than from a driver's—this space will find its second life. And then, amidst the roar of engines and the murmur of memories, perhaps we will see what it always was: a meeting place, an urban heart, a plaza that simply asked someone to stop.