4. Castellarnau House
Noble house from the mid-18th century, now turned into a museum. It features remains of earlier medieval buildings on its ground floor, and sections of the boundary wall of the provincial forum representation square.
Casa Castellarnau (Castellarnau House) is one of the heritage spaces run by the History Museum of Tarragona and it also serves as the museum’s headquarters, along with those of the city’s Heritage Department. The Castellarnau family home might be more accurately described as a palace than as a house. If you come inside, you’ll be able to experience the private and public residence of a well-to-do noble family from the latter part of the 18th century through the singular elements of their former home: the murals and frescoes, the old kitchen, the grand stairway, the inner courtyard, the ballroom, the parlours, and the bedrooms. In this well-preserved stately home, you’ll feel part of the daily life of the city’s high society.
The house’s location, though, tells us of a time long before the Castellarnau family ever set foot in Tarragona. In the basements of the house there are remains of past eras that still survive to this day: a section of the southern wall of the Plaça de la Representació, a very well-preserved section of the 12th century city walls, and quite a few traces of the medieval houses that were torn down to create the magnificent palace we see today.
These medieval houses — noble residences in their own right, for a time — had their moment of splendour when they housed Emperor Charles V and his court when the monarch visited Tarragona in 1542.
Casa Castellarnau is located at Carrer dels Cavallers, 14.
The space where Casa Castellarnau is located was originally a cluster of smaller medieval residences built along the south-western section of the thoroughfare known as Carrer dels Cavallers. The original houses were built using the mur vell (old wall), a 12th century defensive structure, as a foundation for their southern façades. The mur vell itself was built upon the southernmost wall of the provincial forum representation square and can still be found intact in the basements of Casa Castellarnau, along with the remains of the medieval houses that stood there until they were torn down in the latter part of the 18th century to make way for the current palace.
Beneath Casa Castellarnau one can also find evidence of sections of the Roman wall of the provincial forum representation square having been turned into residences during the late antiquity period. As previously stated, the cluster of homes located in the area served as a royal residence for Emperor Charles V’s stay in Tarragona during 1542. Contemporary sources speak of major reforms happening in the area to accommodate the monarch, but these reforms do not seem to have affected the foundations of the buildings, which are the only physical remains we are left with.
It was not until 1764 that Carles de Castellarnau i de Castellarnau bought one of the houses at Carrer dels Cavallers. A newcomer to the city and originally from the Pyrenean town of Alins (in the county of Pallars Sobirà), de Castellarnau was the first of this illustrious dynasty to set up residence in Tarragona, which he did in 1748. Soon after purchasing the house at Carrer dels Cavallers, de Castellarnau would pass away, leaving his widow, Maria Magrinyà i Porta, to take care of family affairs and enterprises. Under her command, the family would buy the neighbouring buildings and transform them into a single palace. The resulting construction is what can be seen nowadays, barring some changes in distribution resulting from Casa Castellarnau’s adaptation as a museum and as the main headquarters for the History Museum of Tarragona.
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Noble house from the mid-18th century, now turned into a museum. It features remains of earlier medieval buildings on its ground floor, and sections of the boundary wall of the provincial forum representation square.41.1178714 1.2554367
