cal Met Natrus

Cal Met Natrus is a traditional Catalan masia (rural farmhouse) in el Prat de Llobregat, in the Baix Llobregat comarca, right next to Barcelona. The building is listed in Catalonia's inventory of architectural heritage as an example of the local farming architecture found across the Llobregat delta.

Where is Cal Met Natrus located?

The farmhouse stands along an old route heading toward Valencia (Camí de València), surrounded by farmland in the municipality of el Prat de Llobregat. This is classic Llobregat delta scenery — a flat, fertile plain at the river's mouth, where farming has coexisted for generations with the nearby port city and airport. The building's coordinates, 41.30709, 2.110261, place it in the rural stretch of the municipality, well away from el Prat's town center and the airport grounds. The surrounding land largely falls within the protected Baix Llobregat Agricultural Park, an area valued for its surviving traditional farmhouses and irrigation channels.

What does the building look like?

Cal Met Natrus follows the classic masia layout of ground floor, first floor, and attic under a two-pitched roof. What sets this particular building apart from neighboring farmhouses in el Prat is the orientation of its façade, which runs perpendicular to the roof ridge, whereas most masies in the area have a façade running parallel to it. This layout is one of the less common variants of local rural architecture, and it makes the building easy to pick out among the surrounding farmhouses built to the more typical plan.

History and ownership

The farmhouse's name appears in early 19th-century parish records under the form "Natrús." At that time the property belonged to the Ribas family, one of the best-known families in el Prat de Llobregat, several of whose members served as the town's mayors. The family's ties to the property go back much further, though, since records confirm its presence here as early as the mid-17th century. The masia therefore stayed in the hands of the same family across generations, a pattern typical of farmhouses in the Llobregat delta, where land and buildings passed from father to son for centuries before urban growth and the expansion of the airport reshaped the surrounding land.

Can you visit it?

Cal Met Natrus no longer serves as a residence — the building stands empty in that sense — but it remains in agricultural use, serving to store farming tools while the fields around it are leased out to local farmers. It is not a site open to visitors in the traditional sense, with no visitor center or exhibition on site. It does sit, however, along walking and cycling routes through the rural part of el Prat de Llobregat, from which its distinctive shape can be admired from the outside, alongside other surviving masies of the region.

Frequently asked questions

What is Cal Met Natrus? It is a traditional Catalan masia in el Prat de Llobregat, listed in Catalonia's inventory of architectural heritage as an example of local farming architecture from the Llobregat delta.

What makes this building architecturally distinctive? Its façade runs perpendicular to the ridge of the two-pitched roof, an uncommon arrangement among masies in the area, where the façade usually runs parallel to the ridge instead.

Who owned the property? From at least the mid-17th century, the property was linked to the Ribas family, one of the most prominent families in el Prat de Llobregat, which produced several of the town's mayors.

Can Cal Met Natrus be visited today? The interior is not open to visitors since the building is still used for agricultural purposes, but it can be viewed from the outside while walking or cycling through the rural part of the municipality.