Mataró is a Catalan city on the Mediterranean coast. It is the capital and largest city of the Maresme region. It is around 30 km to the north of Barcelona. It was from here, in 1848, that the first train on the Iberian peninsular made its Mataró-Barcelona trip.
Geography
Mataró is situated between the Serralada and Barcelona coastal areas, between Cabrera de Mar and Sant Andreu de Llavaneres. The C-32 motorway connects the city with Barcelona, and the N-II provides access to the rest of the region. The C-60 starts at Mataró and goes to Granollers as well as connecting with the AP-7. The regional C-1415 goes to Mollet del Vallès via Argentona and La Roca del Vallès.History
The city of Mataró originates from Roman times, when it was established as Iluro. Numerous archaeological remains from the Roman villa have been found, in particular in the old city centre, where foundations have been uncovered of the Roman houses along with parts of sewers. In the Pla d'en Boet area, the ruins of Villa Torre Llauder, dating from the end of the 1st century BC are preserved, which was outside the city walls of the old Iluro.
The ongoing ambition to break from the feudal jurisdiction led, in the 16th century, to a permanent defence being built for the villa for the security of its inhabitants. King Ferdinand the Catholic granted the right to be definitively incorporated under the Crown in 1480, which also represented the final formation of the city of Mataró. The wall was finished during the 16th century.
At that time, Mataró was a small town built around the church of Santa Maria and the Plaça Gran. Its significant and steady economic and demographic growth made it necessary - and possible - to construct a second wall and to add new city areas.
The Mataró Walls - built between 1569 and 1600 were the design of royal engineer Jorge de Setara. Today, stretches of the wall can be seen in the recently restored Carrer Muralla dels Genovesos, Carrer Muralla D'en Titus and above Camí Ral. Ruins of a wall tower can also be seen in the courtyard of a private building on Carrer Hospital.
The project to wall in the town lasted thirty years due to economic hardship and disputes over the route it should take.
The wall had 7 gates and entrances, the most outstanding of which was the Barcelona gate (at today's Carrer Barcelona with Plaça Santa Anna), on which are reproduced the shields of the principality, Mataró and Barcelona. The original shields are currently shown on the cell dedicated to St Sebastian. The outline of the crossroads between Carrer de La Coma and Carrer de Sant Francesc d'Assís can still be made out at the Valldeix gate. The other gates were the Argentona, Cabrera, Sant Josep, Sant Feliu, Pou de la Sínia and Penya d'en Roig or Portalet.
The city's industrialisation started in 1839, when the first steam engine was installed by a textile factory. From that point, the old, traditional craftsman textile industry was at the centre of economic activity.
The capital of Maresme experienced major economic growth, and entailed the arrival of thousands of immigrants. This wave of immigration was particularly evident during the 1960s and 1970s, when tens of thousands of migrants principally from Murcia, Andalusia and Extremadura settled on the outskirts of Mataró, creating the suburbs of Cerdanyola, Cirera, Rocafonda and La Llàntia, among others. These suburbs were often a long way from the centre of the city, because the new arrivals lacked the money to be able to settle in the centre.
These new suburbs were unsafe places to live in because the City Council did not pay attention to them and because the people who lived there were generally in insecure financial situations.
During the 1960s, residents' associations started appearing with the aim of improving the living conditions of inhabitants and demanding aid from public institutions.
When democracy was restored to Spain, improvement work was done to the city and connections were established with the different suburbs as part of the General Zoning Plan approved in 1977 and its revision in 1993, which was the plan for Via Europa - the main artery that ran perpendicular to the coast and which connected the previously remote peripheral districts and the city centre.
Local Festivals
Mataró's main local festival is the "Festival of the Saints" (Juliana and Semproniana) which is held at the end of July. During this, festival, popular and traditional events are held such as the "El Desvetllament bellugós" (roughly translated as the "the noisy awakening"), which involves going down Carrer de la Riera (the main street in the centre of the town), dancing with processions of giants, to Plaça de Santa Anna, where music erupts.Easter is also a very important cultural event - in particular, the "Armats de Mataró" procession. We know of the existence of the armats ("the armed ones") from the start of the 18th century.