Arc de Berà: A Roman Honorific Arch in Spain
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.4
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Classical
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Classical
- Civilizations
- Roman
- Site type
- Civic
- Remains
- Arch
On this page11 sections
History
The Arc de Berà is a Roman honorific arch at Roda de Berà in Spain, about 20 kilometres northeast of Tarragona. Built in the Augustan period, probably between 15 and 5 BCE and often dated to about 13 BCE, it stood across the Via Augusta, the major Roman road linking Rome with Gades. Its construction belongs to the reorganization of Hispania after Tarraco became the capital of Hispania Citerior in 27 BCE, when improvements to provincial administration and roads reshaped the region. The monument was probably dedicated to Augustus, the first Roman emperor, or to his numen or genius, concepts referring to the emperor’s divine power or protective presence.
Augustan construction and patronage
The arch was erected under the testamentary arrangements of Lucius Licinius Sura, a Roman citizen associated with Tarraco. Its inscription identifies him with the Sergia tribe and records that the monument was consecrated or erected according to his will. The date remains debated. A later proposal places construction in the first or second decade CE, at the end of Augustus’ reign or shortly after his death under Tiberius, rather than in the late first century BCE.
The identity of the patron has also been reconsidered. Earlier interpretations linked the inscription to the senator Lucius Licinius Sura, three times consul under Trajan and a friend of that emperor. More recent research proposes that it refers to an earlier man of the same name, probably the prefect of Colonia Victrix Iulia Lepida who appears on a coin dated to 39 BCE. The arch may have marked the edge of the ager Tarraconensis, the territory administered from Tarraco, although its status as a legally defined boundary has been challenged. It is also understood as a semi-urban arch positioned at an important point on the road.
Later Roman and medieval associations
A restoration or completion connected with Lucius Licinius Sura’s testament is traditionally placed in the late first or early second century CE. One hypothesis associates the monument with the Palfurniana estate of the senator Marcus Palfurnius Sura, but both the location of that estate and its relationship with the arch remain uncertain.
During the medieval period, the monument was associated with Augustus and may have carried a bronze group representing him. It was known as the Arch of Augustus before the name Arc de Berà became established in the eleventh century. That name probably arose through association with the nearby settlement and castle, although it may refer either to Count Berà or to another early medieval person with the same name.
Documentation, damage, and changing uses
The earliest surviving written notice dates from 1525. Drawings produced from the sixteenth century onward trace changes in the arch’s condition. Sixteenth-century writers proposed pre-Roman or Republican dates, but later antiquarian and epigraphic studies established its Roman chronology and clarified the inscription.
By the seventeenth century, the southern third of the upper section appears to have been destroyed. Parts of the cornice and frieze had disappeared, and an architrave block had shifted outward. In the early eighteenth century, local fishermen used the monument as a source of stone for their houses. A partial restoration in 1788, directed by the architect Juan Antonio Rovira, consolidated the south pier, replaced deteriorated blocks, and rebuilt part of the lost structure.
A second restoration began in 1840 under Juan Van Halen after the First Carlist War, a Spanish civil conflict fought chiefly over the succession to the throne. The arch was restructured as a political memorial to Isabella II and General Baldomero Espartero under the name “Arch of Peace.” A marble dedication was installed and removed in 1845. This intervention destroyed some original cornice blocks, removed two of the six surviving blocks of the Latin inscription, moved the other four to the centre of the architrave, and covered the monument with ochre paint. Small parts of the arch were also reused for tombs late in the nineteenth century.
War damage and modern conservation
In July 1936, during the Spanish Civil War, militiamen placed an explosive charge inside the southern pier to block the road beneath the arch. Fallen stones were used as a road barricade. The monument was temporarily shored up and restored during the following months by the monument-conservation service of the Generalitat of Catalonia, while a road diversion kept traffic away from the structure.
Research and documentation between 1984 and 1992, followed by excavations in 1994 and 1997, led to a revised understanding of the monument and its condition. A restoration based on projects by the architect Jaume Costa and the archaeologist Xavier Dupré took place between 1992 and 1998 and established the arch’s present appearance. The Arc de Berà forms part of the Archaeological Ensemble of Tarraco, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000 as component 875-014. In Spain, it is protected as an asset of cultural interest designated as a historic monument and archaeological area. Its image has also become a regional emblem of Roman heritage, appearing in publications, institutional emblems, postcards, photographs, films, and other media.
Remains
The Arc de Berà is a rectangular, single-opening structure built mainly in opus quadratum, a Roman technique using regularly cut ashlar blocks laid in courses. Its central body rises above two raised podia with socles, and the Via Augusta originally passed through the opening. The monument is approximately 12.28 metres high, 2.34 metres thick, and about 11.84 metres long. The opening measures approximately 4.87 metres wide and 10.87 metres high. Its proportions follow a modular system based on the Roman foot, which measured about 0.296 metres.
Podia and central structure
The monument’s two podia begin with socles formed by two courses of stone, each approximately 60 to 70 centimetres high and together corresponding to about forty blocks. Above them, the podium bodies contain irregularly shaped blocks with carefully prepared edges. The central portion has two rows of ashlar blocks about 60 centimetres high, finished with a quadrangular moulding.
The podium masonry follows an isodomic arrangement, with courses of regular blocks and symmetrical joints that have Greek-inspired characteristics. The twelve-course central body uses a different isodomic system, described as Etruscan-inspired, in which the joints are less symmetrical because the blocks vary in length. A moulded archivolt emphasizes the central arch, while internal pilasters and corner pilasters frame the principal façades. Matching corner pilasters also appear on the shorter sides.
Orders, inscription, and summit
Pilasters and capitals
The pilasters have Attic bases, fluted shafts, and Corinthian capitals resting on a continuous moulding that serves as a plinth. The general description identifies eight fluted pilasters, while the architectural analysis records twelve pilaster fronts, each approximately 7.33 metres high. Four Roman-period Corinthian capitals are made from local sandstone. Their upper sections are sculpted, while the two lower sections carry paired wreaths of acanthus leaves. Three of these capitals are complete, and exposure on the seaward side damaged the group.
The capitals use schematic acanthus leaves, paired leaflets, and flowers in the spaces between the arch and the surrounding mouldings. Their forms belong to the early Augustan development of the Corinthian capital. On this arch, however, the leaves are treated more asymmetrically and naturally than in the fully standardized products of Italian workshops. Three replacement capitals made in the late eighteenth century imitate the Roman examples in the same type of sandstone. The sculptor Vicenç Roig carved them from single blocks and treated their surfaces to appear ancient. A further nineteenth-century capital on the northeastern face of the northern pier is a more schematic copy with shallower and somewhat altered decoration.
Entablature and inscription
The entablature consists of a lightly moulded architrave, a frieze carrying the commemorative inscription, and a cornice decorated with dentils. The surviving text is distributed across four architrave blocks on the northern face. Two additional blocks survived until the 1840 restoration and were probably positioned centrally on the southern frieze. The preserved reading begins with a testamentary formula naming Lucius Licinius Sura and his affiliation with the Sergia tribe. The damaged final word may refer to consecration or construction and may have included a deity.
Fragments of the original Roman cornice recovered during the 1994 excavations were reset during the final restoration. The present fabric therefore combines Roman masonry with restored and reconstructed material. Many facing blocks belong to the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century interventions, while the surviving pilaster capitals include four Roman-period examples.
Attic and upper sculpture
The existence of an attic above the entablature remains debated. Ancient remains and drawings made in 1779, 1806, 1824, 1832, 1839, 1844, and 1849 support reconstructing such an upper storey. It would have increased the monument’s stability and reduced the outward projection of the cornices.
The summit may originally have carried a bronze group with Augustus at the centre. Another interpretation proposes an equestrian statue or a group showing Augustus with members of his family. Coin issues from Tarraco have been used to support the possibility of an upper sculpture. The monument’s surviving decoration is restrained in comparison with the richly ornamented triumphal arches of southern Gaul. It may originally have been coated with stucco, while grooves cut into the stone probably strengthened contrasts of light and shadow.
