Village
La Garriga is a municipality in the Vallès Oriental comarca, in the province of Barcelona, crossed from north to south by the Congost river and bordering the Montseny Natural Park. It has close to 17,400 inhabitants. Its proximity to Barcelona, the climate and the thermal waters turned it, in the early 20th century, into a summer resort for the Catalan bourgeoisie, which left behind its well-known ensemble of Modernista houses, partly the work of the architect Raspall. Bombed by Francoist aviation during the Civil War, it preserves an air-raid shelter that can be visited. It also holds the Roman villa of Can Terrés, from the 1st century BC, and the Gothic church of la Doma, with a 1492 altarpiece dedicated to its patron saint, San Esteban. For Corpus Christi, floral carpets are laid out in its streets.
Monument
The casa Barbey is a single-family house built in 1910 in La Garriga, commissioned by the textile industrialist Juli Barbey i Poinsard, and it is considered the most important work of Joaquim Raspall's Modernista period. Located in the so-called Raspall block next to the Torre Iris, la Bombonera and the casa Antoni Barraquer, it was declared bien cultural de interés nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection) in 1997. It comprises a semi-basement, ground floor, upper floor and attic, with a lookout tower on the corner and a roof of coloured glazed tiles. The façade combines granite ashlar with pink stucco and ceramic details, and the garden fence displays tricolour trencadís and wrought-iron railings with floral motifs. Inside, leaded stained-glass windows are preserved along with a mural painting by Josep Triadó dedicated to the beach of Sitges.
Monument
Rosanes is a fortified manor house in the municipality of la Garriga, declared bien cultural de interés nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection), located on the right bank of the Congost river, next to la Garriga's industrial estate and near a former airfield; it now belongs to the Girbau family. It is a manor house from the 13th to the 17th centuries whose first documentary mention dates from 1217, although the Rosanes family is already recorded in the 10th century. In 1357 the castle was declared Carrer de Barcelona. Over the centuries it passed by inheritance and marriage to several noble Catalan families, among them the Masdovelles, the Foixà-Boixadors and the Desvalls, marquises of Poal, following a long lawsuit settled in 1755.
Monument
La Bombonera is the popular name of the house that the Modernista architect Manuel Joaquim Raspall built in 1910 in La Garriga, commissioned by Cecília Reig i Argelagós, at number 3 of the Paseo. Together with the Casa Barbey, the Torre Iris and the Casa Antoni Barraquer, it forms part of the so-called Raspall block, declared bien cultural de interés nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection) in 1997; it is the smallest of the four and, like the Torre Iris, was built to be rented out to summer visitors, and Raspall assigned it the colour green, as against the pink, yellow and blue of the other three. The stone plinth, stuccoed in green with geometric and floral sgraffito, frames the windows, and the garden fence, with inlaid green ceramic pieces, is unique in the architect's body of work. In 1912 an upper floor and a lookout tower were added to it.
Monument
The Torre Iris is a house built in 1910 in La Garriga by Manuel Joaquim Raspall, considered one of the most significant works of this architect's Modernisme. Located at number 1 of the Paseo, within the so-called Raspall block next to the casa Barbey, la Bombonera and the casa Antoni Barraquer, it was declared bien cultural de interés nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection) in 1997; it was built to be rented out to summer visitors and is the only one of the four houses to have three dwellings, even though from outside it looks like a summer villa tower. It has a basement, ground floor, upper floor and attic, with a lookout tower housing the staircase, covered in two-coloured Arab tiles. On the exterior, stuccoed in yellow, the plant-motif sgraffito that frames the windows and decorates the tower stands out.
Monument
The casa Barraquer is a Modernista dwelling built in 1912 in La Garriga, commissioned by Josep Antoni Barraquer from the architect Joaquim Raspall. It forms part of the Raspall block together with the Barbey, Torre Iris and Bombonera houses, four buildings raised by Raspall between 1910 and 1913 with the same stylistic unity, declared bien cultural de interés nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection) in 1997; he assigned a distinctive colour to each house, and blue fell to the Barraquer. It is a single-family dwelling of concentrated plan, with semi-basement, ground floor, upper floor, attic and a lookout tower housing the staircase; the walls combine an irregular stone plinth with sgraffito and blue ceramics. It is the least Modernista of the four houses, closer to the Viennese Secession; it was restored in 1999.
Activity
The Festa Major de la Garriga is celebrated from July 30 to August 3, with popular-culture events typical of this spa and modernist town.
Historical milestone
La Garriga suffered bombings during the Civil War and preserves an air-raid shelter dug beneath the town centre, today open to guided visits. It forms part of the memory sites that document the protection of the civilian population between 1936 and 1939.
Historical milestone
King Martí l'Humà and Queen Maria de Luna settled in the town from 28 April 1400 to take its thermal waters. The royal stay documents the medicinal use of the springs of the Congost valley already in medieval times.
Food and drink
Sweet of rounded shape and almond and chocolate flavour that the pastry shops of La Garriga have turned into a local mark of identity. It is sold in boxes and accompanies coffee, as the borregos do in Cardedeu or the carquinyols in Caldes de Montbui.