Discover Artés: Wine, Trails and History

On the first Sunday in October, the streets of Artés’s old town become the open-air setting for the Festa de la Verema del Bages.

During the Festa, wines from 19 producers of the DO Pla de Bages can be sampled at Plaça Vella; music and food offerings accompany the tastings. The Festa de la Verema del Bages includes cultural and artistic events centred on viticulture, as well as rural and craft traditions.

Wine and Local Life

The Celler Cooperatiu d'Artés was founded in 1908 under the name Sindicat Agrícola d'Artés. It offers guided tours of the cellars and a historical exhibition about the cooperative. The wine tourism offering of the Celler Cooperatiu d'Artés includes wine and Cava tastings.

Trails and Geology

Artés has an extensive and varied network of signposted paths and trails for discovering the municipality’s natural, geological and cultural heritage. The Artés trail network includes dry-stone construction routes, geological routes, official Artés trails and health walks through the town centre.

The circular Itinerari geològic de les Guixeres route starts at Plaça Francesc Blancher d’Artés and displays marine sediments from the late Eocene, as well as gypsum left behind by the evaporation of the former sea. The geological trail to the palaeochannels of Artés is a signposted circular route. Along it, visitors can see rock formations created millions of years ago by deposits in the riverbeds or streambeds of former waterways. The Matacans geological trail in the Geoparc de la Catalunya Central leads, among other places, to dry-stone huts, an archaeological site and geological remains.

History and Culture

Only a Romanesque apse, the 17th-century bell tower and a section of the nave wall remain of the former parish church of Santa Maria d'Artés. The Roman villa of Els Calls is dated to the period between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD. The existence of a Roman villa is suspected at the Matacans archaeological site. Three Roman inscriptions from the 2nd and 3rd centuries were found at Plaça Vella.

The Museu de la Història d’Artés – Fons Pare Faura presents the history of Artés from its beginnings to the present day. This includes the municipality’s economic and social life, as well as notable residents. In the basement of one of the two buildings of the Casa Museu in Artés, the Espai Tines preserves nine large wine vats and two wells from the 18th century, discovered during restoration work.

In Artés’s old quarter, the last surviving arch of the town walls is one of the historical features worth seeing. The surviving section of Artés’s town walls lies north of Plaça Vella in Parc de les Muralles, near the buildings of the old castle. Artés has a necropolis and an early Christian church; both can be dated to the 6th or 7th century.

The Complex Cultural de Cal Sitges includes, among other facilities, the Auditori and Sala Dos de Gener and hosts most of Artés’s music, theatre and interdisciplinary cultural programme. Artés Cultura organises and coordinates local festivals and cultural events rooted in the municipality. The Camí Oliba (GR-151) is a long-distance hiking trail between Montserrat and the Pyrenees, whose thematic focus is Romanesque art and which was inspired by the figure of Bishop and Abbot Oliba.

Other destinations in this selection include Barcelona, Malla, Mura, Canoves, Sant Joan Samora, Vallgorguina, Sant Quirze De Besora and Sant Pau D'ordal.

To the higher-level travel overview: Barcelona.