Village
Sitges is a coastal town in the Garraf, with 32,609 inhabitants (INE 2025), known for the Cau Ferrat, the Palau Maricel and its Carnival, the cradle of Catalan modernisme. Its name comes from sitja, meaning 'underground granary' in Catalan. Documented as an Iberian settlement since the 4th century BC, in the Middle Ages a castle was built on the hill of la Punta -today the seat of the town hall-, ceded in 1041 to count Mir Geribert; in the 12th century it passed to the Sitges family, who adopted the place name as their surname, and in 1308 to Bernat de Fonollar, a knight of James II whose tomb is kept in the church of Sant Bartomeu i Santa Tecla. On his death, the town passed to the Pia Almoina of Barcelona, which administered it until 1814. Medieval life was organised around the walled hill of the Baluard, with three defensive towers from 1303.
Monument
The Vila Vella of Sitges, a Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection), is the historic centre, built on the promontory of la Punta between the beaches of la Ribera and Sant Sebastià; the protection also extends to the first eixample, centred on the carrer Major, from the sea to the plaça del Cap de la Vila. It is presided over by the church of Sant Bartomeu i Santa Tecla, a Baroque building from the last third of the 17th century and one of the town's best-known silhouettes. Notable are the Casa de la Vila, neo-Gothic (1888-1889), built on the site of the old castle; the Cau Ferrat, a house-museum that Rusiñol built in 1894 on former fishermen's houses; and Maricel, built between 1910 and 1913 by Charles Deering on a 14th-century hospital. The first record of Sitges dates from 992, and that of its castle, from 1041.
Monument
The castell de Garraf, near the small seaside settlement of Garraf, is an old fortification in the municipality of Sitges declared a Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection); on maps it appears as Castellet, although in the village it is known as Castellot. The first records date from the 12th century, around 1163, and may be linked to the construction of a monastery-castle at Garraf in 1159; according to the fogatge of 1365-70, the castle, belonging to the prior of Garraf, corresponded to three hearths or houses. In 1394 the king granted the lordship of the place to the Pia Almoina of Barcelona cathedral, which sold it in 1418 to the university of Sitges. Today only two vaulted spaces and the entrance gateway survive on a rocky promontory; in 2022 access was improved with European funds.
Monument
On the summit of the Castellot, a hill of 241 metres that overlooks the plain of Campdàsens, in the Garraf massif, in the municipality of Sitges, the remains are preserved of a rectangular construction of about 8 by 5 metres with interior compartments, which could be identified with the castle of Campdàsens according to the toponymy of the area; the building is declared a cultural asset of national interest. The name appears linked to the castle of Eramprunyà, whose domain was extended in 1337 with the grant of the direct dominion and the allodial rights of the castle of Campdàsens to the knight Pere Marc. It is possible that it was a watchtower or fortified house related to the castle.
Monument
The Torre de Garraf, also known as Torre de Can Güell, is a circular watchtower from the 14th-15th centuries, with battlements and arrow slits, built in the settlement of Garraf, municipality of Sitges, on a hill close to the Barcelona railway line, next to the Bodegas Güell. It was declared a cultural asset of national interest on 8 November 1988. At the beginning of the 19th century it was left in a poor state after being partially destroyed by English troops; at the end of that century, when Eusebi Güell acquired the estate, the architect Francesc Berenguer, a disciple of Gaudí, directed its restoration and integrated it with the buildings of the estate by means of an interior bridge.
Monument
Circular tower attached to one side of the farmhouse, with the base battered and the upper part lowered to adapt it to the current roof. It was part of the defensive system of the old estate of Campdàsens and is attributed a date from the 13th century or later. Medieval remains are also preserved in the drip moulding of the window located above the main door of the house; the whole, at once a dwelling and a defensive element, conveys a clear sense of strength.
Monument
Watchtower located in the municipality of Sitges (Garraf), at the top of the Castellot hill, at 241 metres of altitude, from where it overlooks the plain of Campdàsens. From the preserved ruins one can make out a rectangular-plan construction of about 8 metres long by 5 wide, with interior compartments, built between the 13th and 15th centuries; it may have been a watchtower or fortified house related to the nearby castle of Campdàsens. In 1323 the knight Pere Marc acquired the castle of Eramprunyà and its territory, which included the direct dominion and the allodial rights of the castle of Campdàsens. It is declared a Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Spain's highest level of heritage protection).
Monument
The castle of Miralpeix consists of shapeless wall remains located at the western end of the municipality of Sitges, on the boundary with Sant Pere de Ribes. The complex, of about 275 m² and rectangular plan structured into two rooms, preserves a quadrangular tower, a cistern and the remains of a five-step staircase. Documented in 1057, when Bishop Guislabert granted the uninhabited tower of Miralpeix to Arnau d'Arloví on condition that he rebuild it, it seems to have been destroyed in 1190 in a fight between Ponç de Ribes and Gombau de Miralpeix. It remained an episcopal domain, subinfeudated to the Ribes family, until in 1411 it passed to the Pia Almoina and in 1413 it was incorporated into the universitat of Sitges; the excavations of 1991-1992 documented two occupation phases, between the 11th and 18th centuries.
Monument
Tower of almost square plan and about eleven metres in height, with arrow slits and remains of the machicolation that crowned it; one of its openings preserves stone jambs and lintel, and it was accessed through a voussoired door located halfway up. It forms part of a simple farmhouse, of ground floor and one upper storey, whose main door is made of stone voussoirs. The farmhouse, previously called Font de la Gallina, is documented from the 13th century, although the current building dates from the 15th or 16th century; it is linked to the defensive system of Campdàsens. The complex lies within the Parc del Garraf, uninhabited and in poor condition, with the lower part of the tower badly damaged by the loss of mortar.
Monument
The Museu Romàntic Can Llopis, a neoclassical house from the 18th century built in 1793 in the old quarter of Sitges (Garraf) and a Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Spain's highest level of heritage protection), is today a museum of 19th-century bourgeois life. It was built by Josep Bonaventura Falç i Roger, and in 1801 passed by exchange to his cousin Manuel Llopis i Falç; his grandson, Bernardí Llopis i Pujol (1814-1891), was a recognised producer of malvasia, a sweet wine of the town still grown in the vineyards of l'Hospital, donated by the family. In 1935 the diplomat Manuel Llopis i de Casades bequeathed the house to the Generalitat for a romantic museum; the project was interrupted by the Civil War and in 1943 the Diputación de Barcelona took it over. It was inaugurated in 1949, first occupying the main floor, and was later extended to the garden, the wine cellar and the library.
Monument
The Museu del Cau Ferrat, in the old quarter of Sitges next to the beach of Sant Sebastià, was the house-workshop of the painter and writer Santiago Rusiñol, a leading figure of Catalan modernisme. In 1893 Rusiñol acquired an old fisherman's house and, after demolishing the adjoining one, built there his house-workshop to a design by Francesc Rogent, inaugurated in 1894; he named it Cau ("lair"), for being a refuge for poets, and Ferrat, for his collection of wrought iron. Painters, musicians and writers of the turn of the century passed through it, and in 1894 it hosted the Third Modernista Festival, when Rusiñol brought two paintings by El Greco from Paris. On his death in 1931 he bequeathed the house to Sitges, and in 1933 it was inaugurated as a public museum; today it is also a section of the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, and it reopened in 2014 after a restoration.
Monument
The Palau de Maricel, or Maricel de Terra, forms part of the noucentista complex of Maricel, in the historic centre of Sitges (Garraf), and includes elements brought from other places in Spain, such as the Isabelline Gothic door of the Palau Villena from Cadalso de los Vidrios. Miquel Utrillo built it between 1913 and 1918 for the collector Charles Deering, who gathered there a collection of furniture, painting, sculpture, ironwork, glass, mosaic, books and tapestries, with works by Ramón Casas, Santiago Rusiñol, Zurbarán, El Greco or Goya. In 1921 Deering left Sitges with his collection, today largely held at the Art Institute of Chicago. Since 1932 the building has been used for cultural activities and space rental, and it forms part of the Inventory of the Architectural Heritage of Catalonia.
Monument
The Museu Bacardí, or Museu del Rom, occupies a building on the plaça de l'Ajuntament of Sitges and is dedicated to Facund Bacardí i Massó, born in the town on 14 October 1813. Having emigrated to Santiago de Cuba in 1828, after a first failed attempt he founded in 1862, together with his brother Josep, the firm Bacardí, Boutellier & Company, a pioneer in refining rum through fermentation, filtering with charcoal and ageing in white oak barrels. Bacardí died in Cuba in 1886, at the age of 72.
Nature
The coastline of Sitges (Garraf, Barcelona) is formed by urban beaches such as those of Aiguadolç, Sant Sebastià, la Fragata, l'Estanyol or Terramar, together with rocky coves at the foot of the cliffs, such as that of les Botigues. Sea bathing in Sitges dates back to 1888, and the municipality has become one of the best-known coastal destinations in Catalonia, with an important role in LGBT tourism.
Activity
The Carnaval de Sitges, with more than a hundred years of history, is one of the best known in Catalonia. It begins on Fat Thursday with the arrival of the Carnestoltes, king of the Carnival, and continues until Ash Wednesday with dances and xatonades; its most heavily attended events are the Rua de la Disbauxa and the Rua de l'Extermini, with more than 2000 people in costume and more than 50 floats. It gained popularity in the late 19th century through the rivalry between two local recreational societies, lost strength during the Civil War and, under Francoism, survived behind closed doors as masked balls; it did not return to the streets until the death of Franco. It is distinguished by its spirit of disbauxa - at Carnival, anything goes - as against the more sarcastic character of the Carnaval de Vilanova i la Geltrú.
Activity
The Festa Major de Santa Tecla, or Festa Major Petita, is celebrated in Sitges (Garraf) on 23 September, with correfocs, castellers and the popular balls de bastons, just as in the Festa Major de Sant Bartomeu, the town's principal patron saint, celebrated on 24 August. Santa Tecla is co-patron of Sitges alongside Sant Bartomeu, and both give their name to the municipality's parish church, built in the 17th century, which holds the tombs of Bernat de Fonollar and his wife Blanca d'Abella and a 1499 altarpiece by Nicolau de Credenza depicting them both.
Activity
The Festes Modernistes de Sitges recreate the atmosphere of the five cultural events that Santiago Rusiñol organised in the town in the late 19th century, between 1892 and 1899, the most important public modernist aesthetic event of the era, which attracted visitors such as Emilia Pardo Bazán and Rubén Darío. Rusiñol held them at the Cau Ferrat, the fishermen's house he had converted into his studio and where he kept his art collection, with works by El Greco and Picasso among others. Each edition was devoted to a different discipline: painting in 1892, symbolist theatre and music in 1893 — with the Catalan premiere of Maeterlinck's The Intruder, translated by Pompeu Fabra —, literature in 1894, Catalan opera in 1897, with the premiere of Enric Morera's La fada, and a piano concert by Joaquim Nin in 1899.
Curiosity
Xató is a sauce made from toasted almonds and hazelnuts, breadcrumbs with vinegar, garlic, oil, salt and ñora pepper, which accompanies a salad of escarole with anchovies, tuna and salt cod; it is a dish typical of the Penedès and the Garraf, of origin disputed among several towns. According to the researcher Carles Montserrat, the first written reference to a xatonada in Sitges is found in the newspaper Eco de Sitges of 16 February 1896, which recorded a dinner-gathering held three days earlier with 23 guests, among them Miquel Utrillo and Santiago Rusiñol; some even attribute the dish's name to that evening. The origin of xató is also placed in the world of wine-making, linked to the celebration that accompanied the ceremony of tapping the casks of new wine.
Curiosity
Malvasia de Sitges is a sweet, full-bodied, aromatic and high-alcohol wine, typical of the Garraf region (Barcelona), traditionally drunk after local celebrations and xatonades. The malvasia grape, of which a black variety also exists, has a small, tender, oval berry, very sweet and aromatic, and is native to Greece: it is believed that the name derives from an Italian corruption of the Greek place name Monemvasia, from where it spread to Naples, Madeira, the Canary Islands, Sitges and other areas of the Mediterranean. In the Middle Ages it was credited with medicinal properties, and it is mentioned in the Tirant lo Blanc.
Nature
The rasos of the Garraf massif are part of this mountainous range of the Catalan Coastal Range, located between the Llobregat valley, the Penedès depression and the Mediterranean, on whose territory the municipality of Sitges is found. These are low mountains, with maximum heights of around 600 metres, which lose altitude towards the west until disappearing near El Vendrell. The massif, covering about 9967 hectares, reaches its highest point at the cim de Montau (Begues), at 657 metres. It is a mostly limestone terrain, with numerous potholes and caves, where the dwarf fan palm (margalló) is one of the most characteristic plant species.
Activity
The Festa de la Verema (grape harvest festival) of Sitges is celebrated in September, on a variable date, and combines the grape-harvest festival with a wine fair. It recalls the town's winegrowing tradition, historically centred on the cultivation of malvasia, which from the 14th century made Sitges a departure point to the Mediterranean markets for the Penedès region's agricultural products.
Activity
A festival dedicated to Sitges's traditional sweet wine, the malvasia.
Nature
The seafront promenade of Sitges, protected as a cultural asset of local interest, also includes the Bassa Rodona beach and the two breakwaters that delimit it. Along its length, from east to west, one finds a landscaped area with children's play equipment, the Club de Mar, the Maria Teresa swimming pool, opened in 1932, and the Kansas restaurant, the former Casino Platja d'Or of that same year, next to the Club Natació Sitges.
Monument
A space dedicated to Sitges's agricultural and winemaking tradition.
Activity
Sant Antoni Abat festival in Sitges, with the traditional blessing of the animals.
Nature
Cala Morisca is a natural beach on the coast of Sitges, located beneath the cliffs of the Garraf massif and surrounded by rock walls with sparse vegetation, giving it a very characteristic semi-wild appearance. It is 130 metres long with an average width of 44 metres, of medium to fine sand, and is reached on foot down a long flight of steps from the C-31 road, popularly known as the carretera de les Costes. It is a nudist beach, with toilets, showers and sunbed hire, and above its point there is a restaurant with a terrace. Its name refers to the raids by Maghrebi pirates suffered by the coast.
Activity
Sitges' Festa Major d'Hivern, held in January in honour of Sant Bartomeu and Santa Tecla.
Historical milestone
In 1342 the town passed into the hands of the Pia Almoina, a charitable institution of the cathedral of Barcelona, which exercised the lordship for almost five hundred years. It appointed bailiffs and collected dues until the abolition of the seigneuries.
Historical milestone
In 1891 Santiago Rusiñol bought two fishermen's houses facing the sea and turned them into a workshop and museum of ironwork, glass and painting. The Cau Ferrat attracted artists and gave rise to the festivals that made Sitges a Modernista capital.
Historical milestone
In 1968 the first International Week of Fantasy and Horror Cinema was held in Sitges, the seed of the festival that is today a world reference of the genre. The event changed the calendar of the villa and its international profile.
Food and drink
Surf and turf rice with pork ribs, cuttlefish, prawns, langoustines, clams and sausages, to which a glass of malvasia is added before the cooking is finished. It is the dish with the strongest identity of its own in the cooking of the villa.
Food and drink
Sponge cake soaked in syrup with malvasia wine, a classic dessert of the pastry shops of Sitges. It makes use of the sweet wine that has been made in the villa since medieval times and that sustains a century-old charitable bequest.