page_title: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tarragona
section_title: Archdiocese of Tarragona (since 1116)
hierarchical_section_title: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tarragona / History / Archdiocese of Tarragona (since 1116)
caption_attribution_description: Català: Mons. Jaume Pujol Balcells, arquebisbe metropolità de Tarragona i primat de les Espanyes. Fotografia realitzada al carrer Pare Iglesias de Tarragona el dia 19 d'agost de 2013 en motiu de la processó de Sant Magí màrtir, copatró de la ciutat de Tarragona.
context_page_description: The Archdiocese of Tarragona is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical territory located in north-eastern Spain, in the province of Tarragona, part of the autonomous community of Catalonia. The archdiocese heads the ecclesiastical province of Tarragona, having Metropolitan authority over the suffragan dioceses of Girona, Lleida, Solsona, Tortosa, Urgell and Vic.
  The archdiocese, created in Roman times, was reestablished in 1118.
context_section_description: It was not until 1116 that Tarragona was definitively reconquered by Ramón Berenguer III the Great. Bishop Berenguer had died in 1110, after having assisted, in 1096, at the Council of Nîmes convoked by Pope Urban II.
  His successor in the See of Tarragona, St. Olegarius, had been a canon regular at St. Rufus in Provence, later an abbot, and then Bishop of Barcelona in 1116–1137. To him is due the restoration of the metropolitan authority of Tarragona. In 1117 Count Ramón Berenguer III conferred on him the government of the city that he might endeavour to recolonize it, which work he carried on with great zeal.
  He assisted at the councils of Toulouse and Reims (1109), of the Lateran (1123), and of Clermont (1130), and accompanied the Count of Barcelona as pontifical legate in the war which terminated in the imposition of a tribute upon Tortosa and Lleida. The Norman Robert Burdet also joined the forces of the Count of Barcelona, established himself in Tarragona and obtained dominion over a great part of the city.
  On the death of St. Olegarius (6 March 1137), Gregory, Abbot of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa, succeeded him in the vacant See of Tarragona, and was the first incumbent of that see to receive the title of archbishop.
  The dissensions among the sons of Robert Burdet led to the murder by them of Archbishop Hugo de Cervellón 22 April 1171.
  By special privilege of the pope, all the kings of Aragon were crowned at Zaragoza by the archbishop of Tarragona, until the metropolitan See of Zaragoza was re-established in 1318.
  The dissensions between the archbishops and the kings, on account of the jurisdiction over Tarragona granted to the bishops who had begun its resettlement, continued during the time of king Alfonso II of Aragon, who bestowed the city as a dowry on his wife, Doña Sancha.
  When king Jaime I, a child of six years, took the oath, the Archbishop of Tarragona, Don Aspargo Barca (1215–1233), carried him in his arms. Although he was far advanced in his years, he wished to accompany the king in his expedition to conquer Majorca, and when Don Jaime refused his consent, he contributed a thousand marks in gold and twelve hundred armed men.
  In 1242 a provincial council was convoked at Tarragona to regulate the procedure of the Inquisition and canonical penances. In 1312 a provincial council was assembled in the Corpus Christi Chapel of the cathedral cloister, to pass sentence on the Templars, whom it declared innocent.
  King Pedro IV the Ceremonious, who, after forcibly seizing the dominions of the archbishop, repented in his last illness and restored to St.Tecla, patroness of the city, all that he had unjustly acquired.
  Don Pedro Zagarriga, Archbishop of Tarragona in 1407–1418, was one of the arbitrators at the Compromise of Caspe (1412).
  One of the most celebrated prelates of Tarragona,  Antonio Agustín y Albanell (died 1586), a native of Zaragoza, was an eminent jurisconsult and numismatist. He put an end to the struggles referred to in Don Quixote, between the Narros and Cadells factions, which had disturbed the peace of Catalonia.
  In 1912 it was bounded on the north by Barcelona and Lleida, on the east by Barcelona, on the south by the Mediterranean Sea and Tortosa, and on the west by Tortosa. It comprised the civil Provinces of Tarragona and Lleida, and the city of Tarragona had 24,335 inhabitants. Its suffragans were Barcelona, Lleida, Girona, Urgell, Vic, Tortosa and Solsona.
caption: Archbishop Jaume Pujol Balcells
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