Secrets of Barcelona: Augustus' temple

This week my book The 500 hidden secrets of Barcelona gets released. In the next couple of blog posts, I’ll expand on some of the book’s entries. Today: secret number 308, from my list of ‘5 remains from when Barcelona was stilled Barcino’. 

Hidden Roman remains 

In 19 BC, the Romans conquer the Iberian peninsula, settling the town of Barcino. The settlement is only created to distribute land among retired soldiers. Barcino’s location allows for economic development. Yet by the time Barcino has become Barcelona, very few traces of its Roman past are left behind. The huge Temple of emperor Augustus falls into disrepair. It gets swallowed by the new city. 

The temple was part of the city’s forum, the apex of public life. Strangely, the forum’s political power never left the neighbourhood. Even today, the Palau de la Generalitat (= the building housing the offices of the Catalonian government) is where the forum used to be. It is one of the few buildings of medieval origin in Europe that still functions as a seat of government. The four columns in front of the entrance are Roman: the marble came all the way from Troy (Turkey) and arrived in Tarraco (currently Tarragona, in Catalonia) in the second century AD. 

What is left of Emperor Augustus’ Temple can be found one minute away from the Palau. You have to look carefully, though. Near one of the corners of the Plaça de Sant Jaume is a seemingly dead-end street. On closer inspection, it makes a right turn at the end. A couple of meters further down, in the building with number 10, is a patio where you can see the last remains of the Temple: four impressive columns. 

That’s all there is. It’s so very little, and yet, because of their size, the columns do give an idea of how big and impressive the temple for the deified emperor must have been. 

The Barcelona citizens have done their best to preserve what is left of the temple. Three columns were actually “embedded” in the building, with marble ornaments popping up inside a living room. The fourth one stood on the Plaça del Rei, where it witnessed the inquisition burn its victims and Columbus returning with a bit of news about a new continent. In the 19th century, the patio was created and the missing column reunited with its brethren. 

I’ve always liked the columns. From a tourist point of view, the underground Roman ruins (also on Plaça del Rei, maybe 5 minutes away) are more interesting, but there’s something about this little patio. It suggests something about history remaining encased in the present. Usually history is horizontally layered: a certain site will show Roman foundations, remains of a small church on top of that, and a giant cathedral to top it off. Here we have a historical building [Carrer Paradís 10, www.museuhistoria.bcn.cat/en/node/648] with older history inside. It inspires you look at the city in a different way, and ask yourself: what part of a certain building will be left standing, and in what newer, bigger creation will it speak of our times?