The museum of the Roman-Christian necropolis of Tarragona in context

ABSTRACT

This text offers for the first time a critical and comprehensive study of the Necropolis Museum of Tarragona, which was inaugurated in 1930 by the renowned archaeologist Serra i Vilaró. It starts with a detailed description of the museum and its history with many unpublished old photographs and many little-known archive documents. The broader framework of Catalan archaeological and diocesan museums is then analysed in order to understand the context in which the museum of Tarragona was set. The third section of the text analyses the Mediterranean context and all the contemporary museums from which Serra took inspiration.

KEYWORDS:

• Museum
• necropolis
• Tarragona
• 1930
• European heritage
• early-Christian museums

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 J. Tulla, P. Beltran and C. Oliva, Excavaciones en la necrópolis romano-cristiana de Tarragona (Madrid, 1927), pp. 5–9.

2 A. Muñoz Melgar, ‘La Transmisión del Patrimonio Paleocristiano en Tarragona. Procesos, recursos y propuestas’, in Tarraco christiana ciuitas, ed. J. M. Macias Solé and A. Muñoz Melgar (Tarragona, 2013), pp. 241–255, in particular p. 241.

3 J. Serra Vilaró, Excavaciones en la necrópolis romano-cristiana de Tarragona (Madrid, 1935).

4 MNAT, Estudio histórico del Museo, Jardines i Necrópolis Paleocristiana de Tarragona (Tarragona, 2020) [manuscript], pp. 20–30.

5 When it was donated to the state and passed under the Provincial Archaeological Museum: MNAT, op. cit. (note 4), p. 21.

6 MNAT, op. cit. (note 4), p. 4.

7 Serra Vilaró, op. cit. (note 3), pp. 57–58.

8 S. Heid, ‘Joan Serra I Vilaró’, in Personenlexikon zur Christlichen Archäologie, ed. S. Heid and M. Dennert (Regensburg, 2012).

9 MNAT Archive, Fons Batlle.

10 C. Berlabé Jové, ‘In principio … Gènesi del Museo Arqueologico del Seminario di Lleida’, in La formació de col·leccions diocesanes a Catalunya, ed. A. Velasco Gonzàlez and M. Sureda Jubany (Lleida, 2017), pp. 27–52.

11 Els grans museus de Catalunya (Barcelona, 2005).

12 M. Sureda Jubany, ‘Com creix una col·lecció episcopal: els primers deu anys de vida del Museu Episcopal de Vic (1889–1900)’, in La formació de col·leccions diocesanes a Catalunya, ed. A. Velasco Gonzàlez and M. Sureda Jubany (Lleida, 2017), pp. 89–111, see p. 90.

13 Sureda Jubany, op. cit. (note 12), pp. 93–103.

14 E. Carrero Santamaria, ‘Josep Gudiol i Cunill i els estudis sobre arqueologia sagrada a Europa. Manuals i diccionaris per a la memòria dels usos i les funcions’, Quaderns del Museu Episcopal de Vic, 7 (2014), 67–76., 68.

15 M. Sureda i Jubany, ‘Gudiol a Roma: de l’anima antica a l’Arqueologia sagrada’, Quaderns del Museu Episcopal de Vic 7 (2014), 9–26, in particular p. 17.

16 Sureda i Jubany, op. cit. (note 15), pp. 15–18.

17 S. Mata de la Cruz, El museu diocesà de Tarragona. Fortuna i adversitat d’una institució centenària (Tarragona, 2020), p. 20.

18 Carrero Santamaria, op. cit. (note 14), p. 68.

19 J. Figuerola Garreta, ‘L’art com un repte polític: l’Església davant del món canviat de final del segle XIX i princips del segle XX’, in La formació de col·leccions diocesanes a Catalunya, ed. A. Velasco Gonzàlez and M. Sureda Jubany (Lleida, 2017), pp. 15–26, see p. 21.

20 Berlabé Jové, op. cit. (note 10), p. 29. The Holy See's provisions on the protection and enhancement of the Church's heritage also played a seminal role in this: Berlabé Jové, op. cit (note 10), pp. 31–34; C. Cecalupo, ‘Per una storia del museo sacro cristiano: confronti diacronici dall’antichità ad oggi’, Humanitas (2021), 169–189.

21 Figuerola Garreta, op. cit. (note 19), pp. 21–23

22 M. Garganté Llanes, ‘Els primers 25 anys del Museu Diocesà de Solsona: del bisbe Rui a Joan Serra i Vilaró’, in La formació de col·leccions diocesanes a Catalunya, ed. A. Velasco Gonzàlez and M. Sureda Jubany (Lleida, 2017), pp. 53–76, especially 65.

23 Berlabé Jové, op. cit. (note 10), pp. 27–31.

24 R. Planes Albeits, ‘Joan Serra i Vilaró i el Museu Arqueològic Diocesà de Solsona’, in Capellans erudits. Eclesiàstics al capdavant de l’acció patrimonial museística i de recerca historicoartística a Catalunya al segle XX, ed. M. Sureda Jubany and A. Velasco Gonzàlez (Solsona, 2016), pp. 16–41, 20.

25 J. Calderer, F. Tarrats and J. M. Trullén, ‘Musèoleg’, in Revelar el passat. Homenatge a Joan Serra i Vilaró en el XXV aniversari de la seva mort (Tarragona, 1994), pp. 20–31, 23.

26 Garganté Llanes, op. cit. (note 22), p. 70.

27 Planes Albets, op. cit. (note 24), p. 35.

28 Regarding Serra and his work on prehistorical archaeology see: J. Vidal, ‘Arqueología, Iglesia e interdisciplinariedad en Cataluña durante la primera mitad del siglo xx’, Veleia (2020), 79–94, especially 88–90.

29 J. Calderer i Serra and J. M. Trullén i Thomàs, Museu Diocesà i Comarcal de Solsona: catàleg d'art romànic i gòtic (Solsona, 1989).

30 Muñoz Melgar, op. cit. (note 2), p. 241; M. A. Ferrer i Borsch, A. Desca i Roigé and J. Rovira i Soriano, CL ANYS de la Reial Societat Arqueològica Tarraconense (Tarragona, 1994), pp. 268–269.

31 Mata de la Cruz, op. cit. (note 17), pp. 144–148.

32 Mata de la Cruz, op. cit. (note 17), p. 142.

33 Mata de la Cruz, op. cit. (note 17), p. 34.

34 Mata de la Cruz, op. cit. (note 17), p. 19.

35 Mata de la Cruz 2020, op. cit. (note 17), pp. 34–43.

36 A. Del Arco y Molinero, ‘Memoria descriptiva del Museo Diocesano de Tarragona’, Butlletì Arqueologic de Tarragona (1915), 7.

37 Mata de la Cruz, op. cit. (note 17), pp. 61–63.

38 A. Muñoz Melgar, Mvsevm Biblicvm Tarraconense (Barcelona, 2011).

39 The first nuclei of the museum date back to the early seventeenth century. Thus, the archaeological museum of Tarragona is the oldest museum of its kind in Catalonia: MNAT, MNAT. A Museum for Tarraco (Tarragona, 2018).

40 Ferrer i Bosch, Dasca i Roigé, Rovira i Soriano, op. cit. (note 25), p. 181.

41 But not published until 1894: B. Hernández Sanahuja and A. del Arco y Molinero, Catálogo del Museo Arqueológico de Tarragona con la clasificación hecha en 1878 (Tarragona, 1894).

42 Ferrer i Bosch, Dasca i Roigé, Rovira i Soriano, op. cit. (note 25), pp. 201–202

43 That suffered a theft in 1902: J. Lòpez Vilar, L’antic Museu de la Societat Arqueologica Tarraconense (1844–1867) (Tarragona, 2020), p. 19.

44 A. Del Arco y Molinero, ‘Museo arqueológico provincial di Tarragona, in Guia histórica de los archivos, bibliotecas y museos arqueológicos de Espana. Seccion de Museos ed. F. Rodrìguez Marìn (Madrid, 1925), pp. 312–359.

45 Now preserved in the Historical Archive of the Archbishopric of Tarragona and in the Library of the Pontifical Seminary, respectively: J. Ruiz Rodríguez, ‘Fons bibliogràfics d’arqueologia paleocristiana a Tarragona: Les biblioteques privades dels drs. Serra Vilaró i Batlle Huguet al museu diocesà e a la Biblioteca del Seminari Pontifici’, Butlletí Arqueològic V (2014–2015), pp. 271–284.

46 I. Di Stefano Manzella, Index inscriptionum Musei Vaticani 1. Ambulacrum Iulianum sive "Galleria Lapidaria" (Città del Vaticano, 1995).

47 C. Cecalupo, ‘La Catedral de Roma: un centro de cultura, colecciones y espiritualidad’, in Actas del Congreso Internacional VIII Centenario Catedral de Burgos 'El mundo de las catedrales’ (Burgos 2022), pp. 35–43.

48 C. Cecalupo, ‘The Catacombs in Rome. Collecting and displaying in the first Christian cemeteries’, God's Collections (2021) <https://www.godscollections.org/case-studies/the-catacombs-in-rome>.

49 B. Effros, ‘Reviving Carthage’s Martyrs: Archaeology, Memory, and Catholic Devotion in the French Protectorate of Tunisia’, Archeologia Medievale 46 (2019), pp. 65–73.

50 P. De Palol, ‘Serra Vilaró i la Tarragona Paleocristiana’, in Revelar el passat. Homenatge a Joan Serra i Vilaró en el XXV aniversari de la seva mort (Tarragona, 1994), pp. 66–73.

51 Mata de la Cruz, op. cit. (note 17), pp. 97–98

52 J. Serra Vilaró, Les Ciutats de Fang Romanes del Nord de l'Africa (Tarragona, 1933).

53 Historical Archive of the Archbishopric of Tarragona, Fons Serra Vilaró.

54 C. Cecalupo, ‘Catacumbas en museos: archivos documentales y fotográficos para la historia de la museografia’, Anales de Historia del Arte 32 (2022), 235–253 <https://doi.org/10.5209/anha.83070>.

55 C. Cecalupo, ‘The Malta Pavilion at the British Empire Exhibition of 1924 as an Expression of Maltese Museography’, Il Capitale Culturale 25 (2021), 491–518, doi: 10.13138/2039-2362/2791.

Additional information

Funding

The author acknowledges support from the CONEX-Plus programme funded by Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and the European Union's Horizon 2020 programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 801538, that gave her the opportunity to spend her secondment period in Tarragona at Museo Nacional Arqueologico de Tarragona in March-July 2022 and May 2023.

Notes on contributors

Chiara Cecalupo

Chiara Cecalupo is CONEX-Plus-Marie Curie Fellow at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and invited professor of Museology at the Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana in Rome. She received her PhD in Museology and History of Early Christian Archaeology at the Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana in Rome and her BA and MA in Museology at the University of Pisa. She is a specialist in museum studies, history of archaeological collections, reception of antiquities from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century and antiquarian studies in the Mediterranean area. Her main focus is on the rediscovery and museums of early-Christian catacombs in the Mediterranean basin (especially Italy and Malta), on history of archaeological museums and collections of early-Christian objects, on archival studies applied to the archaeology. She has a very strong record of publication concerning museology and history of Christian archaeology. As a researcher, she collaborated with several universities and museums in Italy and Malta, with the Vatican Museums and with the Italian Council of Research (Istituto di Scienze del Patrimonio Culturale). She is also leading an international research project concerning the rediscovery of Italian and Maltese catacombs in the early-modern times. She is an active member the Römisches Institut der Görres-Gesellschaft and The Malta Historical Society.