Logbook · 6 places

What to see and do in Calella

What to see and do in Calella (Maresme, Barcelona): 6 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 1 Nature · 2 Activities · 1 Historical milestones

When to go to Calella: festival calendar

September: La Minerva de Calella (second half of September)

How far each place is from the centre of Calella

La Minerva de Calella 500 m

Towns near Calella

Spain › Catalonia › Barcelona › Maresme › Calella

What to see and do in Calella

Calella
Village
Calella is a touristic coastal town in the Maresme, in the province of Barcelona, with 20,864 inhabitants (INE 2025) spread across several areas such as Calella de Dalt. Known as the tourist capital of the Costa del Maresme, it offers nearly three kilometres of golden sand beaches, along with spaces such as Dalmau Park, the Garbí promenade and El Faro. It has almost 650 years of history, and between the 1970s and the mid-1990s it was one of the most important destinations for central European tourism, to the point of being popularly known as Calella de los Alemanes. Since 2016 it has housed the Tourism Museum. A touristic coastal town with an emblematic lighthouse and a long tradition of habanera singing, it remains one of the country's most important destinations.
Lighthouse of Calella
Monument
19th-century lighthouse in Calella, one of the best known on the Catalan coast.
Beaches of the Maresme
Nature
The beaches of the Maresme, officially the Costa del Maresme, form a Catalan coastline running through sixteen municipalities from Montgat to the mouth of the Tordera, between the Costa Brava and the Costa de Barcelona. They comprise 54 beaches and coves of golden sand with a total length of 55 kilometres, several holding Blue Flag status and the Biosphere sustainability distinction. The coast has five ports, including those of Mataró and El Masnou, and fishing activity is concentrated in Arenys de Mar, along with Sant Pol de Mar, both certified as seafaring towns. Off Mataró, Posidonia oceanica meadows cover 2,900 hectares declared a special conservation area in 2014.
La Minerva de Calella
Activity
La Minerva is the name by which the Festa Major (main festival) of Calella, in the Maresme comarca (Barcelona), is known; it is held on 23 September with popular and traditional events typical of the town's Catalan festas majors.
Habanera Singing of Calella
Activity
Traditional gathering of havaneres songs, a musical genre deeply rooted along the Maresme coast.
Calella and mass tourism
Historical milestone
From 1960 onwards the villa exchanged its knitwear factories for hotels and became one of the first capitals of tourism on the Maresme coast. The growth reordered the seafront and tripled the hotel capacity.