MUHBA Temple of Augustus

Enjoy a tour of the Roman Barcelona, that of Nearer Spain

The Temple of the Roman colony of Barcino has been dated to the 1st century BC, and was consecrated to the worship of the Roman Empire.

The building stood at the axis point of the Forum, an arcaded square that was ringed by the city’s main public buildings, including the basilica and the curia, where the Ordo Decurionum (municipal senate) would meet. It was also the site of the market, where all kinds of products were on sale, brought by sea from all corners of the Mediterranean.

The temple looked down on the city as it stood on a podium that could be accessed by a stairway. It was built at the highest point of a small hill known as Mons Taber. For centuries afterwards, the temple was absorbed into and divided between medieval buildings until the columns and the remaining part of the podium were restored. This project was promoted by the Centre Excursionista de Catalunya and carried out in the early 20th century by Lluís Domènech i Montaner. In the middle of the 20th century, Adolf Florensa continued the restoration work by incorporating a column that had for some time stood in Plaça del Rei. Nowadays, visitors can see the four columns, with their striated shafts and Corinthian capitals, and part of the architrave and of the podium.

Zealously guarded by a medieval building, four temple columns bear witness to the magnificent origins of Barcelona in the heart of the Gothic Quarter. Along with some fragments of the transept and its plinth, the columns are all that remains of the Temple of Augustus. You'll find them at the end of Carrer Paradís in the Gothic Quarter, which is reported to take its name from a beautiful garden once located in the area around the temple in Barcelona. Opposite number 10 on this street, a millstone marks the highest point of the Roman city, Mont Tàber, a hillock that stood just over 16 metres high. The uniform columns of the Temple of Augustus inside are 9 metres tall and comprise an imposing relic of one of the temples from Barcelona's Forum which stood on a corner site at the rear. The temple was built in the 1st century BC and, as its name suggests, it was dedicated to the worship of Emperor Augustus. It was 37 metres long and 17 metres wide, and the front contained six columns (hexastyle temple). The columns surrounded the entire building, which had a single nave inside. The temple was reconstructed by the architect Puig i Cadafalch in the early 20th century.