Bera

Twenty kilometers to the east of Tarragona stands, near a village called El Roc de Sant Gaietà, this simple arch. It indicates the place where the Via Augusta, the Roman road along the coast of Catalonia, entered the territory of the colonia called Tarraco, the capital of the Roman province Hispania Citerior / Hispania Tarraconensis.

Arch of Bera

Arch of Bera

Inscription at the Arch of Bera

Arch of Bera

The arch is made of locally hewn stone and 10½ meters high; when the foundation (partly visible) is included, it measures 12¼ meters. The monument may originally have been dedicated to the emperor Augustus. On the entablature, some remains of the inscription are still visible:

The arch was restored in the nineteenth century, heavily damaged again during the Spanish Civil war, but restored again.