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During the Emperor Valerian's persecutions in 259, bishop Fructuosus and his two deacons Augurius and Eulogius were killed in the amphitheatre arena of the picturesque Roman city of Tarraco (Tarragona). This is the earliest martyrdom known from written sources in Hispania, mentioned by the author of the Passio Fructuosi, Augurii et Eulogii, an account probably written down by one of the witnesses to the events. The ashes of the martyrs were deposited in a vast necropolis extra muros. In the 4th century, a huge pilgrimage complex was built around their grave, to which pilgrims from all parts of the orbis christianus flocked. In the 6th century, a basilica was erected in their honour at the amphitheatre - the site of the martyrdom of the bishop and his deacons. Their relics were certainly venerated in Tarragona until the early 8th century, and the cult itself, after the relics were carried away from the city after the Arab invasion, probably lasted longer. Although the remains of the cult sites of the Tarragona martyrs are among the most extensively studied by researchers, many questions still remain unanswered. It is therefore worthwhile to re-collect the results of the hitherto research, to confront them with the written sources, and thus establish the current state of knowledge about these oldest places of cult of the martyrs in the Iberian Peninsula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]