Caldes de Montbui town hall

Caldes de Montbui town hall stands at Plaça de la Font del Lleó 11, right in the heart of this small town in the Vallès Oriental region, about 30 km north of Barcelona. It's a working seat of local government, but also a building with an unusual backstory — one rooted in the thermal-bath tradition that has defined Caldes de Montbui for centuries.

How do you get to the town hall?

The building sits directly on the town's main square, so once you're in the historic centre there's nothing more to navigate. Caldes de Montbui has no train station of its own, so the practical way in is by car or regional bus from Barcelona. The square itself, Plaça de la Font del Lleó — named after its lion-head fountain — is the natural landmark to head for, with the town hall standing right on it.

What will you actually see?

The current building is built in the Noucentisme style, the early-20th-century Catalan architectural movement known for symmetry and a classicising sense of order. The façade is organised around four vertical window axes in a near-symmetrical layout, topped by a sloped roof covered in Arabic-style tiles. Wrought-iron balcony railings, a coat of arms placed centrally on the front, and a stone archway entrance give the building the formal, civic look typical of town halls in this part of Catalonia.

It's worth knowing that the building standing today isn't the same structure that occupied the plot as recently as the 1990s. In 2000, the older town hall was demolished and replaced on the same site by a new 1,800-square-metre building spread across three floors — double the size of what came before. The address and civic function stayed put, though, so the site's continuity as the town's administrative centre was never broken.

What's the history behind the building?

The plot's story goes back much further than the current office building. It was originally the site of the Hostal d'en Pasqual, an inn operating around 1580–1609. Over time the property evolved into the Balneari (Casa de Banys) Grau, also known as the Garau baths — one of the oldest thermal spas not just in Caldes but in all of Catalonia, opened in 1674 following a renovation of the earlier inn.

By 1732, the baths — sitting on the corner of Torrent del Salzer and the main square — belonged to Josep Garau. In 1873, a marriage between the Garau and Font families merged the complex with the neighbouring Balneari Font, creating an even larger spa establishment. It wasn't until 1915 that the municipality purchased the building from its private owners and converted it into the town hall, a role it has kept ever since, even though the physical structure has since been completely rebuilt.

When's the best time to visit?

Since this is an active municipal office rather than a museum, the best time to see it is on a weekday during office hours, when the square in front comes alive and the façade catches good morning light. It's worth combining a look at the town hall with a walk through Caldes de Montbui's historic centre, which still carries plenty of traces of the town's thermal-bath past.

Frequently asked questions

Can you go inside the Caldes de Montbui town hall? As a working public administration building, it's mainly open to people with official business during office hours — it isn't set up as a paid tourist attraction.

Why is this town hall connected to thermal baths? Because it was built on the site of, and partly from, the former Balneari Grau (Garau), one of the region's oldest spas, which operated from 1674 until the municipality took over the building in 1915.

Is the current building actually historic? The plot and location have centuries of history, but the structure you see today dates only to 2000, when the older town hall was demolished and replaced by a new building twice its size.

What else is worth seeing nearby? The Plaça de la Font del Lleó itself, named after its distinctive lion fountain, and the historic town centre, which reflects Caldes de Montbui's long tradition as a thermal-spa town.