History

From de beginning to the Middle Ages

Several remains of the Iberian era (IV century BC) found in various places within the municipality of Pineda de Mar (in the Montpalau hills and near "Mas Castellar") attest that the area was populated in ancient times. The Iberian settlements are numerous throughout the whole Maresme, populated by the Laietan tribe, the territory of which, stretched all over the coastline from the Llobregat to the Tordera Rivers. Its inhabitants used to settle in small promontories away from the coast.

The intense romanization process of the region as from the First Century BC brought the progressive settlement of the coastal area and the emergence of numerous hamlets, well connected by the Via Augusta which led to Barcino, nowadays Barcelona . In Pineda de Mar, there are remains of an important roman village in the "Mas Can Roig", where a long aqueduct ended, four arches of which are still visible near "Can Cua".

The Later Middle Ages

After the Arab occupation, as from the IX century, Pineda de Mar territory was part of a large confine, which extended from the Tordera River to Caldetes. As from the XI century, records cite the Montpalau castle, which together with the one in Palafolls shared the jurisdiction over the whole High Maresme. The lands of the Montpalau, mostly unpopulated, comprised a large territory which included the parishes of Arenys, Sant Iscle and Sant Cebriá de Vallalta, Horsavinyà, Vallmanya and a great part of Sant Pere de Riu and Santa Maria de Pineda. During the XII century, the high lordship of the Montpalau castle was in the hands of the powerful Cabrera family, who kept it until the end of the XVI century.

Regarding the parish of Pineda, which in those days included today's Calella and Santa Susanna, we know that the Santa Maria Church was consecrated in 1079. At that time, there was not yet a population centre forming a village as such, only a few houses scattered across the inner sector of the municipal area.

 

The birth of the town

Around the end of the XII century, the first houses begin to be constructed near the church forming one street only around the royal way, the ancient roman road that led to Barcelona along the coast. This ancient urban settlement was known by the name of "Pobla de Sa Buada". In 1338, the viscount Bernat II from Cabrera, granted village status to the surroundings of the market which had been conceded a little earlier to the Cabaspre sector by the King.

This event would lead to the foundation of the Village of Calella , which in 1400 became the seat of the council and the administrative centre of the area.

The population kept increasing during the XV century, at the end of which, what today is Pineda municipal area had 49 homes, 32 of which conformed the core of "Sa Buada".

The Modern Age

The urban growth of Pineda went on rather slowly during the XVI century, when the present Catalunya Square was built, and a section of the way to the Sea was open, just before the beginning of the new century. In those days, attacks from pirates and Turkish and barbarian corsairs to coastal towns were frequent, and they led to the construction of numerous watch and defence towers, and the fortification of the church, built a few years earlier. An inscription in the lintel of the church portal refers to the cruel attack suffered by the population on the first of August 1545 by Turkish corsairs headed by the infamous Dragut.

The lapse of the XVII century was a time of certain stagnation in the whole region, dedicated almost entirely to agricultural activities. Two elements influenced negatively the normal development of the population: on the one side, the wars between Spain and France from 1635 onwards, and at the same time, the epidemics which gravely affected the region around de middle of the century.

It's as from the XVIII century, once the Succession War of 1714 had finished, that Pineda, like the rest of the country, achieves a remarkable demographic growth. According to the records of the time, Pineda inhabitants increased from 493 to 1.163 between 1718 and 1787. At that time there were 164 houses in the village and 42 farms, and the economic activity was far more diversified.

From the travels book of Francisco de Zamora, who visited the area around 1790, we know that in Pineda there were 22 fishing boats, one ship of 60 tons and three of 4 tons, employing a total of 100 men registered as seamen. There were linen weavers and most women worked making narrow lace edgings ( Zamora cites a total of 750 women with a yearly income of 27.000 catalan pounds). The main activity was still the agriculture, basically the production of wine and wheat.

The XIX and XX centuries

Pineda suffered, as most of the country, the consequences of the different warring events that took place during the XIX century. During the War of the French, the church was burned and in 1873, in the middle of the Carlist war, a platoon commanded by General Savalls set alight part of the town. Despite the arrival of the railway, the last half of the century was a time of stagnation, and population remained stable around 1.850 inhabitants. At the beginning of the XX century, the urban layout of Pineda was still configured around the long medieval street, heading towards the beach by means of a section of Tribala street and a stretch of the Carrer de Mar (Sea Street), which was detached from the small cluster of little houses which had been emerging in the low end of it, near the railway station.

The first decades of the XX century, despite de disaster of the Phylloxera plague, brought about the beginning of the demographic and urban growth of the village. In this process, an outstanding role was played by Manuel Serra i Moret (1884-1963), an important republican politician, founder of the "Unió Socialista" (Socialist Union), who was Mayor of Pineda between 1914 and 1923. Just as important was the contribution of the architect Isidre Puig i Boada, who carried out the "Plànol General d'Alineacions de Places i Carrers de la Vila de Pineda" (1922), (General Planning and Aligning of Squares and Streets of the Village of Pineda ).

During those years, Pineda began to be a popular resort for wealthy families from Barcelona who stayed here during the summer. In 1930 the population easily exceeded the 3.000 inhabitants.

From the sixties on, the increasing industrial activity, and most importantly the arrival of package tours, generated a wave of immigration and urban growth of colossal proportions, which in a few years transformed radically the traditional look of the town. New neighbourhoods such as "Poblenou" ( Newtown ) emerged, new residential states were developed and numerous hotels and apartments were built. The population increased spectacularly: In between 1960 and 1995 the number of inhabitants went from 3.278 to 17.814. In October 1999 we attained 20.000 inhabitants and beginning of 2004, the population reaches some 24.000 residents.