Tarragona (province)
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Province of Tarragona Província de Tarragona (Catalan) |
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 Map of Spain with Province of Tarragona highlighted |
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| Country | Spain | ||
| Autonomous community |
 Catalonia
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| Capital | Tarragona | ||
| Area rank | Ranked | ||
| • Rank | Ranked | ||
| Official language(s) | Catalan and Spanish | ||
| Parliament | Cortes Generales | ||
| Website | http://www.dipta.cat/ | ||
Tarragona (Catalan: [tərəˈɣonə], Spanish: [taraˈɣona]) is a province of eastern Spain, in the southern part of the autonomous community of Catalonia. It is bordered by the provinces of Castellón, Teruel, Zaragoza, Lleida, Barcelona, and the Mediterranean Sea.
The province's population is 888,895 (2008), of whom about one-fifth live in the capital Tarragona. Some of the larger cities and towns in Tarragona province include Reus, Salou, El Vendrell, Tortosa, Valls, Amposta. This province has 183 municipalities. The province includes several World Heritage Sites and is a popular tourist destination. There are Roman Catholic cathedrals in Tarragona and Tortosa.
After the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in the late eighth century, this part of Spain came under the control of the Umayyad Caliphate and most of the Iberian peninsula was known as Al-Andalus, and was dominated by Muslim rulers. Abd al-Rahman I founded an independent dynasty that survived in the region until the 11th century. After the Muslim conquest, the bishopric of Tarragona came under the jurisdiction of the metropolitans of Narbonne or Auch in southern France. In 1089, this was reorganised, and it came under the jurisdiction of the bishopric of Vich, and in 1118, after Tarragona had been reconquered, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tarragona was established.
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