Sant Feliu de Llobregat

Sister cities

• Villeneuve-le-Roi

History

Paleolithic remains found in the Can Albareda area show a prehistoric human presence. Iberian and Roman traces remain, for instance in the town square. In Roman times and during part of the Middle Ages, the place was called Titian and Micano Tiano. The name Sant Feliu does not appear until 1002 in a document in the monastery of Sant Cugat del Vallès. The name originally applied to a chapel dedicated to Saint Feliu (Catalan for Felix). The church of Sant Llorenç (Catalan for Lawrence) was built in 1524 (destroyed in the Civil War and since rebuilt). Until then, Sant Feliu depended on the parishes of Sant Just Desvern and Sant Joan Despí. In the seventeenth century, Jaime Falguera built a palace in the town, with extensive grounds stretching to the river Llobregat. Until recently the property remained in the family of the Marquis of Castellbell, noble descendants of Falguera, and the palace was used into the twentieth century. Today the municipality owns the palace and what is left of the gardens. The National Rose Show is held there each May. The stables preserve a carriage of the Castellbell family. In 1855 a railway line was built linking Barcelona and Vilafranca with a station at Sant Feliu. The town market was built in 1885. Steam-driven textile factories came early to the town: Bertrand (1861) and Solà and Sert (1893) are the most important firms today. But the heavy industrialisation of the town and its region came with the twentieth century introduction of electricity. Rose growing has been an important industry in Sant Feliu since the beginning of the twentieth century. King Alfonso XIII made Sant Feliu a city in 1929 and in 1936 it became the capital of Baix Llobregat. During the Civil War place names with monarchist or religious meaning were removed.…

Geography

Sant Feliu is situated in the valley of the river Llobregat, and goes up to Parc de Collserola. The closest mountains to the city, which belong to the Serra de Collserola, are the Puig d'Olorda (436.4 m), the Penya del Moro (375 m), the Puig Aguilar (387 m) and the Puig Sant Pere Màrtir (389 m). The Riera de la Salut flows from the mountains through the city and ends in the Llobregat river, it is usually dry as it only carries water after heavy rain.