Montgat

Montgat is a Spanish municipality and town in the province of Barcelona, in Catalonia. Belonging to the El Maresme region, it has a population of 12,277 inhabitants (INE 2022). The relief of the municipality is characterized by the coastal strip between El Masnou and Badalona and the elevations of the Catalan Coastal Range close to this coastal strip, along with other hills such as Les Guixeres (112 meters) or La Marquesa (64 meters). The altitude oscillates between 170 meters near Turó Sariol, on the border with Tiana and Badalona, and sea level. The urban center stands 34 meters above sea level. Four beaches make up the Montgat coastline (2,047 metres): Cala Taps beach (150 metres), La Morera beach (218 metres), Sant Joan beach (584 metres) and Monsolís beach of (1095 meters).

Originally Montgat was a small Iberian town. The excavations that have been carried out show the existence of some Neolithic settlements in the term, approximately from 3500 BC. The Turó de Montgat is documented from Roman times under the name of Promontorium Lunarium. The current municipal term was crossed by the Via Augusta. In the Middle Ages there was a castle that watched over the entire northern coast, but during the War against France (1808-1814), it was ordered to be blown up by the British, in Sept. 1808) after having been occupied by Neapolitan troops in the service of Napoleon under the command of General Lechi, after having been recovered by Spanish troops with British naval support. On the ruins, the founders of the Catalan Association of Scientific Excursions held frequent meetings in the 19th century.

Montgat had the first railway tunnel in Spain when, in 1848, the Barcelona-Mataró train line was put into operation. In 1867 a parish was established. Until 1933 Montgat was part of the term of Tiana. It was separated, after a Decree of the Generalitat of Catalonia of July 6 of that same year, in which the separation of the district and the constitution of an independent city council were approved. The separation was effective on July 17.