Logbook · 4 places

What to see and do in Sant Pere de Riudebitlles

What to see and do in Sant Pere de Riudebitlles (Alt Penedès, Barcelona): 4 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 2 Historical milestones

Towns near Sant Pere de Riudebitlles

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What to see and do in Sant Pere de Riudebitlles

Sant Pere de Riudebitlles
Village
Sant Pere de Riudebitlles is a municipality of 2,516 inhabitants (2025) in the Alt Penedès comarca, in the province of Barcelona, located at an altitude of 291 metres beside the Bitlles river, from which it takes its name, river of the watercresses, alluding to the Nasturtium officinale that grew on its banks. Already in the 13th and 14th centuries buildings such as the Gothic Palau del Marquès de Llió are documented, and the church of San Pedro, patron saint of the town, retains Romanesque influence in its portal. The village had a papermaking tradition, of which the waterwheel of the old Cal Jan mill remains, and today its economy combines the paper, cardboard and graphic arts industry with the automotive and food sectors.
Palace of el Marquès de Llió
Monument
The Palau del Marquès de Llió is a large fortified Gothic mansion in Sant Pere de Riudebitlles (Alt Penedès), next to the church of Sant Pere, built in the 13th-14th centuries. Rectangular in plan, with stepped battlements on the perimeter walls, the facade shows two rows of four windows -the upper ones two-light and the lower ones three-light- and a doorway beneath the stone coat of arms of the House of Llió. It belonged to Josep Francesc de Móra i Catà, who in 1749 received from Louis XV the title of Marquis of Llió, a town in Alta Cerdanya; he was succeeded by his son and then his grandson, the third marquis, who in 1855 married as his second wife Melciora de Foixà i de Garma. As the marriage had no offspring, the title passed to a nephew, who eventually sold the palace and the rest of the family's properties in the town.
The paper mills of the Bitlles river
Historical milestone
The regular flow of the Bitlles drove from the eighteenth century a concentration of paper mills that supplied deckle-edged and cigarette paper to the peninsular and colonial markets. The activity marked the appearance and the economy of the valley.
The municipality renamed Riudebitlles
Historical milestone
In 1937 the Republican council suppressed the religious dedication in the place name and the municipality came to be called simply Riudebitlles. Once the war was over the earlier denomination was restored, which is the one still in force today.