Built at the beginning of the second century AD, the amphitheatre has a characteristic elliptical shape with a central arena where the performances (mainly gladiator fights) took place. The arena was surrounded by the cavea or tiers of public seating. There are pits in the longitudinal and transversal axes of the arena which were used by the "backstage" services. The visible remains we can see today in the arena and on part of the eastern tier belong to a Visigothic basilica (6th-7th century AD) and to the Romanesque church of Santa Maria del Miracle (12th century), built on the site where Tàrraco's Saints Fructuosus, Augurius and Eulogius were martyred in AD 259.