The King's Square

In the lower square of what used to be the provincial forum of Tarraco, we currently have the King's Square, which owes its name to the fact that during the Middle Ages, the Praetorium was transformed into the king's castle.

In this square there are different historical precincts...

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The Praetorium or Castle of the King. It is the tower that delimited the southeastern part of the Provincial Forum of Tarraco. It is currently one of the grounds of the city's History Museum. At the south-western end of this Forum, the twin tower of the old Audience is preserved, next to the Roser portal.

The Archaeological Museum, the work of the architect F. Monravà i Soler, located on one of the sides, is a space where the archaeological remains found in the Roman Tarraco have been collected since 1960. The Medusa mosaic stands out (end of the century 2nd AD – first third of 3rd century AD) inspired by the myth of Perseus, of which a part that was made in situ by an expert craftsman is preserved - in which the scene of Perseus and Andromeda stands out - and this exceptional central emblem.


This is the best mosaic found in Tarraco. Coming from the residential area of the city, it would form part of the paving decoration of a domus, from where it was moved to the Archaeological Museum in 1857 because work was being carried out on the quarry of the modern port.

It reproduces only the forehead of the mythological character, with snakes instead of hair and those very special eyes that petrified whoever looked at them.

The poet Isabel Ortega sang about this in her book Medusa, published in 2013.

And two churches, that of Trinity and Nazareth. The "mysteries" that participate in the Holy Burial of Good Friday meet here.