Village
Sant Sadurní d'Anoia is a municipality in the comarca of Alt Penedès, in the province of Barcelona, with 12,911 inhabitants (INE 2025), whose name recalls the old parish of Sant Sadurní de Subirats, documented since 1080, and the Anoia river that crosses the municipal territory. Vine growing developed in the 18th century owing to demand from the American market, and cava bottles have been produced there since 1872. When phylloxera devastated the French vineyards, Sant Sadurní experienced its greatest growth, but the plague reached its vineyards in 1887; a group of landowners, the seven wise men of Greece, introduced French methods against it. World capital of cava, it is today home to the main producing wineries, such as Codorniu and Freixenet, and makes 90% of the bottles produced in Spain.
Monument
The Codorniu cellars, in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, are a modernist complex built by the architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch between 1902 and 1915 over the old farmhouse of Can Codorniu, documented since 1551 and traditionally devoted to wine production. Puig built the porxo de premses (press porch), the celler gran (great cellar) and the shipping pavilion, and rebuilt the farmhouse tower, all in a neo-medieval vein, with exposed brick, stone and green trencadís; notable features are the circular tower with its conical roof of glazed scale tiles and the inner courtyard covered with patterned glass. Since the last quarter of the 19th century, the family firm has been one of the oldest and most important cava producers in the country. The complex is classified as a national historic-artistic monument and has been open to visitors for decades.
Monument
A defensive tower of Sant Sadurní d'Anoia linked to the Carlist Wars of 1873-1874, the only visible remnant of the fortifications built during that episode; later converted into a water tank for the fountain that bears its name and restored in 2008. Octagonal plan with a single chamber, a crenellated terrace and an attached sentry box with gun-ports. An Asset of National Cultural Interest since 1988 (BIC RI-51-0005678).
Monument
Vilarnau, or Vilardell, is an old domus or fortified house, today in ruins, situated in the territory of Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, next to the Codorniu cellars. Protected as a BCIN and listed as an archaeological site, it is reduced to two parallel walls of a rectangular building about 15 metres long and 3.10 metres wide inside, whose best-preserved stretches reach two metres in height. It is documented since 1196, when permission was granted to build an altar there dedicated to the blessed Mary, and there was also a mill called Vilarnau. It belonged to notable Penedès lineages until the 18th century, although as an inhabited settlement it probably disappeared in the 16th. Some blue tiles come from Vilarnau, reused as ornament at Can Guineu.
Activity
A popular festival in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia (Alt Penedès) held on 7 and 8 September, with fire and music as its protagonists, commemorating how the townspeople overcame, in the late nineteenth century, the phylloxera plague that devastated the municipality's vineyards. Declared a Festa Popular d'Interès Cultural (recognition by the Catalan government for popular festivals of cultural interest) in 2017, it has been held since 1982 and has grown over the years: the fire dragon, the work of the local studio El Taller, was joined by fire-spitting vine stocks, the fil·loxeretes (phylloxera figures) and the seven sages of Greece. On the night of 7 September, thirty fil·loxeretes parade through the streets throwing fire; on the 8th, all the figures parade to Plaça de l'Església, where eight scenes are performed telling, through dance and fire, the arrival of the plague and the search for a solution.
Activity
Wine tourism route through the leading cava producers of Sant Sadurní d'Anoia and its surroundings.
Nature
Final stretch of the river Anoia, 64 kilometres long in total, the river axis of the Alt Penedès region, which also runs through l'Anoia and the Baix Llobregat before flowing into the Llobregat at Martorell. Along its course it passes through towns such as Igualada, Capellades, Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, Gelida and Martorell itself. For centuries it was a backbone of the Catalan paper industry, with as many as 65 paper mills set up along its course.
Nature
A 43-kilometre route running through the river spaces of the Alt Penedès.
Activity
Festa Major of the capital of cava, with solemn Mass, the Diables Se Me'n Refum and a parade of giants. It is held on 29 November, the feast day of Sant Sadurní, patron of the village, who gives his name to the municipality.
Historical milestone
When phylloxera reached Sant Sadurní in 1887, a group of owners nicknamed els set savis de Grècia imported from France the graft onto American rootstock and set up nurseries. The comarca was replanted and turned decisively towards sparkling wine.
Historical milestone
Josep Raventós i Fatjó made in 1872, in the family cellars of Sant Sadurní, the first bottles of Catalan sparkling wine by the traditional method, with native varieties. From that trial the whole cava industry was born.
Food and drink
The sparkling wine of the Penedès undergoes the second fermentation inside the bottle and ages on the lees in galleries dug beneath Sant Sadurní, from where most of the Spanish production comes. Macabeo, xarel·lo and parellada form the base.
Food and drink
Each October, within the Setmana del Cava, the wineries of the municipality set up stalls in the street and serve their cavas by the glass together with tapas from local producers. It is the main gastronomic event of the local calendar.