Village
Mataró is the capital of the Maresme, on the Mediterranean coast about 30 km northeast of Barcelona, with 131,683 inhabitants (INE 2025). Its origins go back to the Roman city of Iluro, on which the historic centre stands, and for centuries it stood out in maritime trade and shipbuilding, until receiving city status in 1702. A pioneer of the Catalan industrial revolution thanks to knitted textiles and metalworking, in 1848 it hosted the peninsula's first train journey, between Mataró and Barcelona, driven by Miquel Biada. It preserves a rich modernist heritage, with buildings such as the Casa Coll i Regàs and the Nau Gaudí, and has been the birthplace of figures such as the architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch and the musician Peret.
Monument
The Cooperativa Obrera Mataronina, also called Casa Asensio, was a project for a combined factory and residential complex by the architect Antoni Gaudí in Mataró, of which only the bleaching hall, today known as the Nau Gaudí, and a service outbuilding survive, declared a Cultural Asset of National Interest. Gaudí worked on the commission between 1878 and 1882, shortly after graduating, in one of his first important works, which reflects his youthful engagement with utopian socialism. The cooperative had been founded in 1864 in Barcelona by the Reus-born industrialist Salvador Pagès, one of the leading promoters of the 19th-century Catalan cooperative movement, and began operating in 1869 in a rented premises in Gràcia.
Monument
The Torre de Can Palauet is a manor house in the historic centre of Mataró, capital of the Maresme district, protected as a cultural asset of local interest. Built in the 15th century over earlier structures, it retains a medieval tower and a vaulted 16th-century cellar, while the facade, from the 17th century, incorporates a 15th-century Gothic window; on the main floor, notable 19th-century rooms feature allegorical mural paintings. It was the residence of the Palau family — one of its members, Joan de Palau, was rector of Santa María de Mataró and bishop-elect of Elne — and in 1626 its chapel hosted the wedding of Luis de Haro, nephew of the Count-Duke of Olivares, to Catalina de Córdoba. Restored in 1996, it has housed the Maresme District Archive since 1997.
Monument
The former Presó de Mataró (Mataró Prison) is a building protected as a cultural asset of national interest, located on La Riera, opposite the Cercle Catòlic. Its facade, looking somewhere between a palace and a fortified castle, corresponds to a plan made up of a rectangular wing, used for administrative offices, and a semicircular wing housing the courtyard and the cells, on a ground floor and upper floor. The building, of exposed brick, was constructed in 1851 by the architect Elies Rogent, also the author of the neo-Romanesque building of the University of Barcelona and of the restoration of the monastery of Ripoll. Rogent applied the panopticon system here, to achieve a complete view of the cells from the courtyard. The building ceased to function as a prison in 1967.
Monument
The Basilica of Santa María, in Mataró, is a church whose existence is documented as early as 1008, although the present building was erected from 1675 and completed in the 18th century, to a design by the Milanese architect Ercole Turelli, who extended the space of the 15th-century Gothic church eastward; of that earlier church only the foundation of the bell tower and the keystones of the central nave survive. With a Latin-cross plan, it houses the Retablo del Rosario, a work from the late 17th century by the Mataró sculptor Jaime Serrallonga, and the Conjunto de los Dolores, one of the finest examples of Catalan Baroque, decorated with frescoes and sculptures by Antonio Viladomat from 1722 onward. It is the seat of the Hermandad de Nuestro Padre Jesús Cautivo y Nuestra Señora de los Dolores de Mataró.
Monument
A modernista building in Mataró (Maresme), designed in 1898 by the architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch on commission from the textile manufacturer Joaquim Coll i Regàs. Declared a Cultural Asset of Interest in 2000, it is today owned by the Fundació Iluro. The facade on Carrer d'Argentona, of neo-Gothic rhythm, incorporates a plinth, a large upper-floor bay window, and windows of Montjuïc stone carved by Eusebi Arnau, a regular collaborator of Puig i Cadafalch; above the doorway stands out the sculpture "The Spinner" ("La hilandera"), which has become a symbol of the city. The sgraffito work, the decorated tiles and the ground-floor grilles incorporate motifs of the cotton flower and the cogwheel, in reference to the owner's textile business.
Monument
Can Tria de Mata is a farmhouse in Mataró, in the old neighbourhood of Mata, declared a cultural asset of local interest; its defence tower, today joined to the house by a corridor although originally separate, is declared a cultural asset of national interest. The tower, of quadrangular plan with four storeys above the ground floor, stands out for its Renaissance windows with pilasters and capitals, and for the gallery of round arches crowning the top storey; on the main facade and on one side a machicolation survives. The farmhouse, simpler and also Renaissance in style, retains windows with lintels, sills and jambs of ashlar, and a voussoired round-arched doorway. Everything suggests that both were built in the 16th century, with 17th-century alterations, and belonged to the Tria family.
Monument
Remains of the wall that surrounded the old town of Mataró between the 16th and 17th centuries, declared a Cultural Asset of National Interest. The works, directed by the royal engineer Jorge de Setara, began in 1569 with the western section and were completed in 1602 with the southern one. Of polygonal plan, the wall enclosed the whole old town with seven gates and protected the population from attacks by pirates and corsairs and from epidemics such as plague. It lost its defensive function in the 18th century, when several sections were absorbed into private buildings, and between the 19th and 20th centuries others were demolished to allow urban growth. Archaeological excavations between 1990 and 2008 have brought various fragments to light, today mostly covered beneath the present-day paving.
Monument
Remains of the ancient Roman city of Iluro, preserved beneath the old town of Mataró. The city was founded ex novo in the first half of the 1st century BC on a 28-metre hill, succeeding an earlier Iberian settlement, Ilduro, known from bronze coins of the 2nd-1st centuries BC. Its layout remains partly fossilised in some streets of today's historic centre. The perimeter wall, the forum, a large cistern, the market or macellum, sewers, urban and suburban necropolises, a manor house with mosaics beneath the Plaça Gran, and remains of public baths at Can Xammar have all been documented. It continued in existence until the early 7th century, with periods of greater activity in the 2nd and 4th centuries.
Activity
Main festival of Mataró (Maresme, Barcelona) in honour of the Christian martyrs Juliana and Semproniana, born in ancient Iluro at the end of the 2nd century. It is held from 25 to 29 July, with the 27th as the central day, and in its current form it began in 1979. It includes the opening Nit Boja, correfocs (fire-runs) with the Drac de Mataró and the Diablesses, gralla matinades, and performances by the Robafaves family of giants. It was declared fiesta patrimonial de interés nacional (the distinction recognising Catalonia's most important festive heritage events) in 2010.
Curiosity
Scattered archaeological remains of the ancient Roman city of Iluro, preserved beneath various points of Mataró's historic centre and declared a protected asset on 7 November 1995. The city was founded in the first half of the 1st century BC between the Riera and Rierot streams, covered about 6 hectares and attained municipal status under Augustus, with continuous occupation until the early 7th century. Remains have been found of walls, a forum, streets, dwellings, a large cistern, a market or macellum, sewers and a necropolis, as well as a manor house with opus signinum mosaics and the Can Xammar complex, which probably housed the public baths.
Historical milestone
On 28 October 1848 the line from Barcelona to Mataró was inaugurated, the first railway of the Iberian peninsula, promoted by the indiano Miquel Biada. The twenty-eight kilometres of coastal route changed the economy of the comarca.
Historical milestone
In 1883 Antoni Gaudí raised for the Cooperativa Obrera Mataronense a bleaching hall covered with parabolic wooden arches. It is the first work of his actually built and anticipates the structural solutions of his maturity.