The very favorable geographical configuration, and its very mild climate, facilitated its being populated already in pre-historic times. Relatively numerous Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic sites confirm this. During the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, different human settlements (with their characteristic economical activities: agriculture and cattle rising) found the area that today comprises the "Campo de Tarragona" to be the ideal location.

This settlement process culminated with the consolidation on the territory of the different tribes which constituted the social-political mosaic of the eastern Iberian Peninsula during the pre-Roman era, as a direct consequence of the direct contact of these native groups with the various colonizing peoples of the Mediterranean ( Greek, Punic, Phoenician). The Tarragona Region was occupied by the "cessetan" tribe, and one of their most important settlements (Kese) was the one that serve perhaps as their main capital, and the immediate precursor of the Roman town of Tarraco, the present Tarragona.

In 218 BC, at the time of the 2^nd Punic War between Romans and Carthaginians, the roman army led by Gneo Cornelius Scipion, landed in Empuries, a Greek settlement allied with Rome. Simultaneously Tarraco was founded as the main winter base for the roman armies in Hispania, initiating a long and complex process of incorporation of the peninsular lands to the new roman political, cultural and economical order, in which Tarraco always played a fundamental role.

During the second half of the 1^st century BC, the status of roman charter colony was bestowed on Tarraco, taking the name of Colonia Iulia Urbs triumphalis Tarraco. In 27 BC was named capital of the province, within the new provincial organization instigated by Augustus, who resided in Tarraco for two years, while following closely the military operations he was carrying out in the Cantabric coast, and overseeing his planned transformation of the world.

A program was then put in action to provide the colony with the modernistic and monumental appearance consistent with the importance and significance of the city.

The city’s vitality remained high until the middle of the 3^rd century AD As a consequence of the general crisis and the beginning of the germanic invasions a demographic and urbanistic recession set in, with the city being abandoned and mainly destroyed, except in the high par of the city, which would become therafter the main habitat.

Having lost the status of capital, first to Tolosa, then to Barcino (Barcelona) and finally to Toletum (Toledo, 6^th century AD), Tarraco was progressively relegated further away from the decisive political nerve centers of the era. This remoteness would not lessen its urban importance, based in its condition as metropolitan ecclesiastical see and also the harbor installations, until the arrival of the moors in 713-714 AD This event deteremined the definitive passing of the city into the so-called Middle Ages.

Between the 13^th and 14^th centuries various important events took place, like the implementation of the municipal jurisprudencial regime; the rivalries and litigation during the time of the prelate Benet de Rocaberti and the attempts by Pere III and Joan I to incorporate the jurisdiction of Tarragona to the Crown.

The war with France in the 19^th century profoundly affected the city, having suffered a siege of 56 days, being ransacked and plundered during three days and administered by the French for three years.

Not until almost the 19^th century did the city begins the urban expansion, unconfined by the city walls. The city of Tarragona has three very well defined sectors: the Ramble – Union Street, the port and the modern extension, which expands the city to the Francoli river.