Arenys de Mar

Arenys de Mar is a relatively young town by Catalan standards — only about 400 years old. In the Middle Ages the site was little more than a natural bay, sheltered to the east by rocks called the Portinyol, with oak and holm-oak forests covering the surrounding land. The coast was dangerous territory, plagued by piracy, and the area remained largely uninhabited. The older inland settlement, which grew around the church of San Martín and took its name from the Catalan word for a sandy streambed, is today's Arenys de Munt.

From the sixteenth century onward, some of those inland residents began moving down to the shore to fish, build boats, and trade with ports across the western Mediterranean. Within three centuries the coastal neighbourhood had grown to over a hundred houses, with several streets, a chapel dedicated to San Telmo, and then two further hermitages. To defend against pirate raids, the community built a series of fortified towers — eventually thirteen in total — manned by ordinary residents who used them to spot approaching vessels, take shelter, and fight back.

The neighbourhood gained political independence in stages. In 1574 the Viscount of Cabrera allowed the coastal residents to meet separately from the inland parish. By 1575 they had a licence from the Bishop of Girona to build their own church, dedicated to Santa María de Arenys. In 1599 Gastón de Montcada, Viscount of Cabrera, formally defined the maritime parish boundaries and granted it municipal status. That same year the neighbourhood elected its first Council, founding what became the municipality of Santa María de Arenys. A small flag raised on the bell tower on the first Sunday of May each year marks that founding moment.

The town chose its coat of arms with some ingenuity: lacking obvious symbols, it settled on a blackthorn bush over the sea, because "Arenys" sounded like the Catalan word for that shrub. Its patron saint, San Zenón — a Roman soldier martyred in antiquity — was officially adopted in 1664, when his feast was celebrated for the first time.

Through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, shipbuilding and maritime trade expanded and the town grew. Its social life revolved around two powerful guilds: the Brotherhood of Sant Elm, made up of sailors, and the Brotherhood of San Juan, which brought together farmers and craftsmen. The two institutions competed fiercely and occasionally came to blows. In 1618 the Capuchin Fathers established themselves in the town, drawn by its prosperity. The parish church was completed and fitted with fine altarpieces, including a Renaissance high altar designed by the local artist Antoni Joan Riera. The port of Arenys — for many years the only harbour along the entire northern Barcelona coast — remained the engine of the town's economy, a role the fishing and recreational port continues to hold today.