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2000 years back in time with AR and YouTube


Never before could you step back in time so realistically. Tarragona's tourist office has made an app and films that allow you to step back in time two thousand years.

200 BC. Tarragona became the first settlement of the Romans and the capital of Hispania. Traces of this can still be seen everywhere in the city, the amphitheater, the circus, the old city wall, theater, and much more. But with the app and the videos you can really step into the world of Tarragona of 2000 years ago (or Tarraco, as it was called then).


On your smartphone it is the The Imageen app with Augmented Reality. By pointing your mobile at one of the Roman remains, the live view of reality is supplemented with 3D animation of what it looked like two thousand years ago. My suggestion is to download the app at home (or near Wifi) because it the file is quite heavy.

Click on App Store or Google Play to download the app.



For the app you have to be on the spot with your smartphone and the Imageen app. If you want to immerse yourself in what it looked like at home, you can watch the YouTube videos. The videos last on average half a minute but give a fantastic insight. It concerns the following Roman monuments:

  • The Amphitheatre: Built in the 2nd century, it was used for gladiatorial and animal fights. The amphitheater could seat 15,000 spectators and measures 130 by 102 meters.

  • Forum de la Colonia: was the nerve center of Tarraco, a meeting place for local elites. In short, the heart of the colony's social and political life.

  • Circa Romana: with its chariot races without a doubt the most popular mass spectacle in the Roman world. Built at the end of the 1st century AD. ch. and was about 325 meters long and 115 meters wide.

A fourth film also shows that the current cathedral was built on something even more impressive: the temple of Augusts. If you now visit the cathedral, you can at the same time visit the archaeological research within this temple.


The videos are below. Have fun going back in time!






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