Logbook · 4 places

What to see and do in Montgat

What to see and do in Montgat (Maresme, Barcelona): 4 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 1 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of Montgat

Tower of Ca l'Alsina 150 m
Tower of Ca l'Umbert 450 m

Towns near Montgat

What to see in Tiana 2 km · 2 places
What to see in Alella 3.5 km · 10 places
What to see in el Masnou 3.6 km · 3 places
What to see in Teià 5.2 km · 4 places
What to see in Badalona 5.3 km · 12 places
What to see in Sant Fost de Campsentelles 5.5 km · 1 place
What to see in Santa Coloma de Gramenet 5.8 km · 8 places
What to see in Santa Maria de Martorelles 6.4 km · 2 places

Spain › Catalonia › Barcelona › Maresme › Montgat

What to see and do in Montgat

Montgat
Village
Montgat is a coastal municipality located in the southern Maresme, bordering the Barcelonès, 14 kilometres from Barcelona, with 12,879 inhabitants. Four beaches make up its coastline: Cala Taps, la Morera, Sant Joan and Monsolís. It was originally a small Iberian settlement, with Neolithic settlements documented from 3500 BC; in Roman times the Turó de Montgat was known as Promontorium Lunarium and the municipality was crossed by the Via Augusta. In the Middle Ages a castle was built that watched over the entire northern coast, occupied during the War against France by Neapolitan troops and blown up by British order in 1808. The municipality's name was made official as Montgat in 1981, after being called Mongat for decades.
Tower of Ca l'Alsina
Monument
The Torre de Ca l'Alsina, in Montgat, is a defence or watchtower that formed part of the 14th-century farmhouse of Ca n'Alzina, demolished in 1987. It was added to the house in the 16th century, when it was owned by the Matheu family, and first appears documented in two wills of 1592 and 1593. With an apsidal plan, straight on one side and semicircular on the other, it is about 11.5 metres high, with a ground floor and two upper storeys; it retains the machicolation corbels and a simple drainage gargoyle. The original access was through a postern on the first floor, today replaced by a ground-level door. Like other towers on the Catalan coast, it was built to defend against pirates, and was visually linked to the towers of Can Canyadó, in Badalona, and of Ca l'Umbert.
Tower of Ca l'Umbert
Monument
The Torre de Ca l'Umbert forms part of a three-wing farmhouse located on the Ronda del 8 de Març, in Montgat; the farmhouse, formerly called Mas Barral, retains the family line of its owners although it no longer bears their surname. The central wing, with a round-arched doorway and a double-pitched roof, has a ground floor and two upper storeys; adjoining it on the left is a large square block, with a single-pitched roof, which was possibly originally a watchtower, while on the other side there is another, lower wing, with a ground floor and one upper storey. All the openings, both in the house and in the tower, retain stone lintels, jambs and thresholds. The defence tower is declared a Cultural Asset of National Interest.
The first railway tunnel in Spain
Historical milestone
To cross the promontory of Montgat, the Barcelona to Mataró line bored in 1848 the first railway tunnel built in Spain. The work required cutting back the rock above the sea and remained as the founding image of the peninsular train.