The archdiocese heads the ecclesiastical province of Tarragona, having Metropolitan authority over the suffragan dioceses of Girona, Lleida, Solsona, Tortosa, Urgell and Vic.

The see of Tarragona, which was vacant at that time, was represented at the Council of Arles (314) by two procurators, the priest Probatius and the deacon Castorius.

Count Berenguer Ramón II the Fratricide succeeded in taking the city and made it a fief of the Holy See.

The pope, in recognition of the efforts of the Bishop of Vich, conferred on him the pallium as Archbishop of Tarragona, transferring to him all rights to the city and its churches which had previously belonged to the Holy See.

In 1117 Count Ramón Berenguer III conferred on him the government of the city that he might endeavour to recolonize it, which work he carried on with great zeal.

He assisted at the councils of Toulouse and Reims (1109), of the Lateran (1123), and of Clermont (1130), and accompanied the Count of Barcelona as pontifical legate in the war which terminated in the imposition of a tribute upon Tortosa and Lleida.

The Norman Robert Burdet also joined the forces of the Count of Barcelona, established himself in Tarragona and obtained dominion over a great part of the city.

On the death of Olegarius (6 March 1137), Gregory, Abbot of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa, succeeded him in the vacant See of Tarragona, and was the first incumbent of that see to receive the title of archbishop.

Although he was far advanced in his years, he wished to accompany the king in his expedition to conquer Majorca, and when James refused his consent, he contributed a thousand marks in gold and twelve hundred armed men.

In 1312 a provincial council was assembled in the Corpus Christi Chapel of the cathedral cloister, to pass sentence on the Templars, whom it declared innocent.

King Peter IV the Ceremonious, who, after forcibly seizing the dominions of the archbishop, repented in his last illness and restored to St.Tecla, patroness of the city, all that he had unjustly acquired.

One of the most celebrated prelates of Tarragona, Antonio Agustín y Albanell (died 1586), a native of Zaragoza, was an eminent jurisconsult and numismatist.

He put an end to the struggles referred to in Don Quixote, between the Narros and Cadells factions, which had disturbed the peace of Catalonia.