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THE ROMAN TOWER IN TAPINERIA STREET
This polygonal-floored tower, which formed the northern angle of the Roman colony, still preserves its upper part of small bond and Romanic windows.
A two-holed Romanic window was added during the 12th or at the start of the 13th century.
The walled enclosure preserved up to the present day ( with medieval additions and subsequent reconstructions ), was built between 270 and 310 A.D. by the magistrate C. Coelius - probably upon the remains of a previous wall - to fortify the urban settlement of the Colonia Iulius Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino, a Roman city of some 10 hectares in area, founded in the year 15 B.C. in the age of the Emperor Augustus.
The wall’s octagonally-shaped perimeter was 1,270 metres long and contained a fortress facing the sea.
The stretches of wall were reinforced by rectangular-floored towers, with the exception of the corner towers and the towers which flanked the entrances to the city, which had polygonal or circular floors.
The position of the city gates and the archeological remains which have been found indicate that the interior of the enclosure was organized in the manner of the castrum:
-A long central thoroughfare, Decumanus maximus, 825m in length, crossing the city from the Porta Praetoria ( now Portal del Bisbe), and passing the modern-day streets of Bisbe, Ciutat and Regomir to the Porta Decumana ( Regomir Street)
-A further central thoroughfare, perpendicular to the last, Cardo maximo, 550m in length, which joins the Porta Principalis Sinistra (Plaça de l’Angel ) and the Porta Principalis Dextra ( which used to be between Ferran and Call Streets ) passing Llibreteria and Call Streets.
- A number of secondary roads, Decumani minores, running parallel to the Decumanus maximus (now Gegants Street, Ensenyança Passage and Sant Domenech del Call Street).
-Further secondary roads, Cardines minores, which, respecting the plan, run parallel to the Cardo maximo ( as do the present-day streets of Sant Sever, Baixada de Santa Clara, Baixada de la Pietat, Bisbe Caçador, Font de Sant Miquel and Baixada de Sant Miquel ).
- Within the spaces bounded by these streets were built the domus ( houses ), the public buildings termae ( the baths ), the forum, the temple etc.
The wall retained its function until the 13th century, when King Jaume I allowed openings to be made in the wall to support new constructions..
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