Sant Cugat del Vallès

Sant Cugat del Vallès is a young, modern, dynamic destination where various events are always taking place that give life to the city. Its privileged location just 25 kilometers from Barcelona and with excellent accessibility, whether by car or by public transport, makes it the ideal destination for a weekend getaway or a day trip if what you are looking for is a place away from the crowds of the big city. And it is that Sant Cugat del Vallès is so close to Barcelona, but it is so different at the same time...

With a most interesting cultural heritage, surrounded by nature where you can enjoy outdoor activities and a vibrant commercial area, this city is the ideal place to enjoy with your partner, friends or family at any time of the year. Oh, and let's not forget about the festivities and events that take place throughout the year, making them the perfect excuse to get back to town!

Do you want to discover more about Sant Cugat del Vallès? Well keep reading!

Biodiversity and healthy city

Sant Cugat del Vallès has the Sant Cugat Climate Emergency Declaration and Action Plan, and one of the main strategies of the council to develop the axis of Cultural Transition, materializes with the impulse of several weeks a year dedicated, each one, to a Climate Emergency axis (Energy Transition, Change in the Mobility Model, Food Transition, Zero Waste, Green Infrastructure and Biodiversity and Transition culture).

In this way, the City Council has a new way to promote the essential cultural transition to face the Climate Emergency situation in which we find ourselves.

Nature

Sant Cugat del Vallès is a privileged city when it comes to nature. How many cities do you know that have a natural park just 10 minutes from the center? The city is surrounded by the Collserola Natural Park, the benchmark green paradise around Barcelona. A treasure where you can enjoy endless proposals in the open air, such as hiking, cycling, horseback riding or simply taking a walk to disconnect from the routine, take a breath of fresh air and contemplate the good views from above.

There are several routes adapted for all levels that will take you to some of the park's most emblematic points, such as Pi d'en Xandri, the hermitage of Sant Medir, the hermitage of Sant Adjutori or the Pantà de Can Borrell.

In addition to the Collserola Natural Park, Sant Cugat del Vallès is a very green city, so you can find a network of more than thirteen urban parks and green areas where you can walk and where the little ones in the house can play.

Culture

History, architecture, art, music, shows, legends... Sant Cugat del Vallès is a small city but with an amazing tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

The Monastery of Sant Cugat, with one of the most exceptional Romanesque cloisters in Europe, will explain to you through its stones and more than 140 capitals what daily life was like for the Benedictine monks who inhabited it over the centuries. On weekends you can choose between the guided tours that are organized. Do you prefer a visit to learn about the historical importance of the monastery during medieval Catalonia or do you prefer to learn about the funniest anecdotes and the secrets hidden in the cloister and capitals of the monastery? You can purchase tickets by clicking here. Or if, on the other hand, you prefer to visit at your leisure, you also have the option of purchasing an audio guide service and going at your own pace.

If you are interested in museums, you should know that the city's private and public museum network has a highly varied theme.

Inside the monastery itself you will find the Museum of the Monastery, an ideal space to complement the guided tours where through interactive, audiovisual and models you can delve even deeper into the day-to-day details of the ecclesiastical life of the monastery. In addition, the museum also organizes dramatized guided tours on the first Saturday of each month and various accessible guided tours carried out by people with Asperger syndrome.

In the Celler Modernista, the work of the architect Cèsar Martinell, located in an old winery, you will find a collection of pieces dedicated to winemaking and to the cooperative that commissioned the construction of the building. In addition to this, the architecture of the construction itself is already worth a visit per se thanks to its beauty and uniqueness.

Cal Quitèria, where the Grau-Garriga Center for Contemporary Textile Art is located, is the first museum dedicated to textile art in the Spanish state.

In addition to these, the city has two museums that are pioneers in their subject matter, the Museum of Comics and Illustration and Cal Gerrer, the only museum in all of Europe dedicated to the film icon Marilyn Monroe.

Shopping

In the commercial hub of the city you will find emblematic and historic establishments with beautiful shop windows, food markets with km0 products such as the Mercat Vell or the Mercat de Pagès, specialized in organic and artisan products; the Craftsmen's Market where you will find pieces and works in wood, silver, wax, ceramics, paper, leather... But if there is one that you cannot miss in any way, it is Mercantic, a small vintage town of antique dealers, craftsmen and artists. A benchmark in Europe for lovers of collecting, decoration and retro and vintage items where you can enjoy a 360º experience: gastronomy, shopping, leisure, culture and concerts.

Gastronomy

The flavors, textures, aromas, local products, culture and good weather are the ingredients of the gastronomy of the restaurants in Sant Cugat, where you can savor proposals for all tastes, styles and trends.

Traditional Catalan cuisine is represented in many restaurants in the city where you can taste such representative local products as the mandó tomato, a native variety of Collserola. On the other hand, if you are one of those who prefer new gastronomic experiences or international gastronomy, you will also have a large number of proposals at your disposal.

You will see that it will not be easy for you to choose where to eat! and it is that in addition to good gastronomic offers, you will find restaurants in all kinds of places, some located in the center and others in the middle of nature, in Collserola.

The gastronomic offer goes beyond restaurants. Thus, you will be able to enjoy visits to local honey producers, agricultural cooperatives and many others to get closer to the world of agriculture to see first-hand where the products that later end up on your plate come from.

Sant Cugat with the family

For children and adults to enjoy the city, the City Council has launched the ' Routes for Exploring Families ' project, five thematic routes for each family to choose the one they most want to discover the most emblematic places in the city. You will only need a pair of binoculars, a map and the Familias Exploradores notebook that you can obtain free of charge at the Sant Cugat Tourist Office.

We encourage you to visit the city through its best gastronomy while also enjoying its landscape and other activities related to leisure and culture.