The Cathedral Basilica Metropolitana y Primada de Santa Tecla -commonly known as Tarragona Cathedral- is a cathedral built in the early Gothic style, existing in the city and province of Tarragona.

It is located in the highest part of Tarragona, on a place that was previously occupied by a temple dedicated to the Roman imperial cult (the Temple of Augustus), a Visigothic cathedral and an Arab mosque.

In its current state it corresponds to the transition period between Romanesque and Gothic.

The city of Tarragona, the ancient Roman Tarraco, which was practically the capital of the Hispanic territories, had lost much of its splendor after the fall of the Roman Empire as a result of the Germanic invasions. This increased with the conquest of the city in the 8th century by the Muslims, in addition to the fact that it quickly became a border territory for the defense of Islamic territories, all of this until its reconquest in the 12th century by the counts of Barcelona.

In 1154, for the first time in the city of Tarragona an archbishop with permanent residence, Bernat Tort, arrived from the Abbey of Saint-Ruf, in the city of Avignon, today in France, and which was a territory that at that time he had important links with the counts of Barcelona. In the ordinations that the new archbishop dictates to regulate the internal life of the reduced Cathedral Chapter, he refers to the construction that was being carried out of a fortress to protect itself from the foreseeable Muslim incursions, a fortress undoubtedly settled among the existing remains at that time of buildings of Roman origin. Obviously that small fortress included a first cathedral church, a church that was consecrated to Saint Thecla.

There is no exact information on the construction process of the new Gothic cathedral in the city, since the first known data correspond to the date of its consecration, in 1331. However, there are previous documents that attest to the completion of the works, such as for example, a testamentary legacy that was made by Pere de Queralt in 1166 or the will of the bishop of Tarragona, Hugo de Cervelló, who was assassinated in 1171.

It seems, therefore, that the works of the new cathedral began on an imprecise date, but always after the year 1171, and that they began at the head of the new temple.