Surroundings
Riudoms: Riudoms has an attractive historical and artistic interest. Every street and square of this fortified village did not have pavement in the past, but later were covered with paving stones to prevent the erosion produced by water. Inside the area surrounded by the streets of La Muralla, Sant Pau, Sant Vicenç and the avenue of Pau Casals, we can find the most notorious buildings and houses. Some of them, whether being seigniorial or more austere, keep over the arch of the door the date of their birth, that goes back to the XVI, XVII and XVIII centuries. Their styles go from the Romanesque to the Gothic. This is the case for example of the 17th of the Major Street, which dates from the year 1591 and during former times was a convent of Carmelite nuns.
Within the Raval of Sant Francesc, one of the oldest streets of the town of Riudoms, and particularly at the 14th door, we find the house that belonged to the Gaudí family, and which the modernist Catalan architect granted to the parish church of the town. In fact, if Riudoms is internationally known is because the Catalan architect Antonio Gaudí Cornet (1852-1926) was born in the Mas De La Calderera of this little town of Baix Camp.
One must visit the parish church of Sant Jaume, of baroque-renaissance style, the Hermitage of Sant Antoni, of baroque style, and the Historical Museum of Riudoms, that you will find on the Mare Cèlia Pi Square.
Tarragona: Only 20 kilometres away from Mas Castells there is the city of Tarragona, one of the most important Romanic centres of Catalonia. The monuments of this city have been included on the list of the World's Heritage by the UNESCO, which demonstrates and recognizes the historical and monumental background of its ancestors. The antique Roman Tarraco is a multicultural city, open to the Mediterranean and the Roman world, and a lovely place to walk and discover the beauty of its history through the defensive walls that surround the antique part of the city. The construction of the first defensive wall made of stone archaeologically dates from the beginnings of the II century BC.
The influence of the Roman culture not only reduces to its historical monuments, but pervades a culture that covered the whole Iberian Peninsula. One of the main infrastructures that gave impulse to the construction of the ancient Tarraco was undoubtedly the port. It is a nice place to enjoy the past and the scent of the Mediterranean Sea.
