Tarraco is the ancient name of the current city of Tarragona in Catalonia, Spain. It was the oldest Roman settlement on the Iberian Peninsula. It became the capital of Hispania Tarraconensis following the latter's creation during the Roman Empire.
The area was inhabited from the 5th century BC by Iberians, mainly in the Ebro Valley, who had commercial contacts with the Greeks and Phoenicians settled on the coast.
Tarraco is first mentioned after the arrival of Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus at Empúries in 218 BC at the start of the Second Punic War which began the Roman conquest of Hispania.
When Caesar conquered supporters of Pompey in 49 BC in Ilerda (Lleida), Tarraco supported his army with food. Tarraco received the status of colonia by Julius Caesar after his victory in Munda, around 45 BC, with the epithet Iulia in its formal name: Colonia Iulia Urbs Triumphalis Tarraco, which would remain for the duration of the Empire.
In 476, following the collapse of Roman defenses along the ...
Wat Pradu Songtham (also rendered as Wat Pradu Songram or earlier forms such as Wat Pradu Rongtham) stands east of the former Ayutthaya city island in the area historically known as Ayothaya or Ayodhaya, adjacent to the sites of Wat Kudi Dao and Wat Chakrawan. The surrounding district shows evidence of settlement long predating King U Thong’s foundation of Ayutthaya in 1351, with Khmer occupation under Suryavarman I of Angkor in the early eleventh century establishing a stronghold linked to Lopburi and naming the place after the sacred Indian city of Ayodhya.
The earliest firm historical references place the monastery firmly within the Ayutthaya kingdom under royal patronage from the reign of King Songtham (1610–1628). The Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya record that Japanese merchants, angered by the king’s treatment of their community and by the execution of one of their leaders, formed a force of roughly five hundred men and, in alliance with the official Phra Phimon, marched on the palace ...
Wat Sika Samut (วัดสีกาสมุด), also rendered as Wat Sika Samud, is a small ruined Buddhist temple located outside the historic city island of Ayutthaya in the eastern area. It sits just north of the more prominent restored ruin of Wat Maheyong.
The site occupies a raised mound enclosed by a moat, giving it the appearance of a small island. According to descriptions from the Fine Arts Department, this surrounding water served as an udaka sema (or utoka sima), a water boundary marking the sacred precinct for religious rites in the Lankawong Buddhist tradition, where water symbolizes purity and the enclosed space evokes Mount Meru rising from the cosmic ocean.
No contemporary historical documents record the temple’s founding or builder, so its origins remain obscure. Archaeological and architectural evidence places its construction in the Early Ayutthaya period, roughly between 1351 and 1488, contemporaneous with nearby Wat Maheyong.
The principal chedi shows stylistic links to ...
Chankasem or Front Palace National Museum Ayutthaya.
Chankasem Palace was built during the reign of King Maha Thammaraja, the 17th King of the Kingdom of Ayutthaya. During the reign of King Naresuan the Great the Palace became his permanent residence. Chankasem Palace, like the other palaces, was destroyed during the Burmese invasion. It has been renovated and reopened as a museum open to the public on Wednesdays through Sundays from 9.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m.
Chankasem National museum, Chankasem Palace or Wang na is located in the northeast of Muang island which is near Hua Ro market. According to the historical record, Chankasem palace was built in King Dhamma Racha reign around 1577 in order to be the residence of King Naraesuan Maharacha and was the residence of King Yuparat and many kings.
When Ayutthaya was attacked and seized in 1767, the invaders burnt and destroyed this palace and left it abandonly. Until the reign of King Rama IV of the Rattanakosin dynasty, he commanded to repair of the throne ...
