Village
Argentona is a town in the Maresme, in the province of Barcelona, with 12,891 inhabitants (INE 2025), whose urban centre is grouped on the right bank of the Argentona stream around a rise crowned by the parish church. This church, Gothic in style and dedicated to Sant Julià, dates from the 16th century and houses a chapel of the Blessed Sacrament designed by Josep Puig i Cadafalch during the modernist period, one of his earliest works. The municipality is also famous for its more than two hundred fountains, some with carbonated waters; its water was even bottled and sold commercially until 1970, and since the 1980s a group of residents has been restoring them. It preserves the Casa Puig i Cadafalch, the architect's summer residence, and the Museu del Càntir, devoted to traditional water-jug ceramics.
Monument
The Casa Puig i Cadafalch, a cultural asset of national interest, was the summer house of the architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch, built between 1897 and 1905 on Carrer de Dolors Monserdà, next to Plaça de Vendre, in Argentona. It was created by transforming three adjoining houses that the architect had acquired, making use of their old walls, which met at no right angle anywhere; the interior, labyrinthine and medieval in inspiration, combines nooks and changes of level with modernista facades. The plans were not signed by Puig himself, but by his disciple Antoni Maria Gallissà. The building suffered deterioration: in 2010 a gazebo of its walls collapsed, which led the Town Council to expropriate it in 2012; the works, which restored the original facade, concluded in 2018.
Monument
The Casa Garí, in Argentona, was designed by Josep Puig i Cadafalch and built between 1898 and 1900 on an old fortified farmhouse owned by the financier Josep Garí, from whom it takes its name; it is declared a cultural asset of national interest. It takes the form of a large fortified manor house, with a quadrangular tower and circular turrets with loopholes, covered with glazed ceramic tiles, and surrounded by a walled enclosure. The complex includes gardens designed by the landscape architect Nicolau Maria Rubió i Tudurí, a neo-Romanesque chapel and a small theatre; outside the estate stands the Torre del Cros, a water tower also the work of Puig i Cadafalch. The house is privately owned and cannot be visited inside.
Monument
Can Cabanyes is a fortified manor house in Gothic-Renaissance style located in the north of the municipality of Argentona, in the Maresme (Barcelona), declared a cultural asset of national interest. The present building, from the 16th century, has a rectangular plan with turrets at its four corners, topped with green and white glazed tile roofing, and numerous lintelled openings spread across the four facades. The main entrance opens with a voussoired round arch, above which are arranged three balconies with moulded lintels, bas-reliefs and a coat of arms.
Nature
The riera d'Argentona is a watercourse about 10 kilometres long that flows through the Maresme comarca, in Barcelona, and forms the green axis of the town. It rises in the municipality of Dosrius, at an altitude of 133 metres, at the confluence of the riera de Canyamars and the riera del Far, a stretch known as the riera de Dosrius. It crosses the municipalities of Dosrius and Argentona parallel to the C-60 highway, and its lower course marks the boundary between Mataró and Argentona before flowing into the Mediterranean near Mataró. It is a stream of irregular flow, typical of the Maresme, which receives tributaries such as the riera del Far, the riera de Canyamars, the riera d'Òrrius and the riera de Clarà. In Roman times, the valley it runs through was a communication route between the Maresme and the Vallès.
Activity
Festa Major of Argentona, also known for the Fira de l'Àngel and its decorated fountains. It is held to coincide with the feast of Saint Dominic, on 4 August. The tradition goes back to a legend according to which the saint blessed the infected water of a well, which became miraculous; in his memory, water is distributed in traditional pitchers, the occasion for popular games. In the past the festival also coincided with the International Ceramics and Pottery Fair, now moved to early July under the name Argillà.
Curiosity
A variety of bean with its own designation of origin native to the Vallès and the Maresme, with a creamy texture and mild flavour, a traditional accompaniment to botifarra. It owes its name to the hook shape of its grain, white, flattened and slightly wrinkled; the Government of Catalonia registered its designation of origin in 2007 and the European Union granted it Protected Geographical Indication status in January 2012.
Historical milestone
In 1840 Argentona ceded to Mataró its strip of coast in exchange for mountain lands, an exchange that left the municipality without an outlet to the sea. The operation explains the elongated shape and the inland vocation of the present district.
Food and drink
The villa maintains a tradition of anise liqueurs linked to its waters, celebrated each summer at the festival of the pitcher. They are taken as a digestif and accompany the sweets from the stalls of the ceramics fair.