Can Mònic

Can Mònic is a small but distinctive row of houses in Granollers, listed on the town's local heritage register. Built in the early 1920s, the six homes that make up the ensemble are a modest but telling example of garden-city planning, and today the site is one of the stops on the city's Modernisme trail.

Where is Can Mònic and how do you get there?

The complex sits in Granollers, the main town of the Vallès Oriental comarca, roughly 30 km north of Barcelona. It lies along the walking routes that make up the local Modernisme trail, so a visit combines easily with other early-20th-century buildings in the same town. The easiest way to reach Granollers is by the R2 Rodalies train line from Barcelona, or by car via the AP-7/C-17 motorways; from the town centre, Can Mònic is only a short walk away.

What will you actually see?

The ensemble is made up of six separate single-family houses, lined up along the street at ground-floor level — a layout typical of the "garden city" model that spread through Catalonia in the early 1900s, offering workers detached homes with a garden rather than cramped factory tenements. Each house rests on stone foundations, with the rest of the walls rendered in plaster, and is topped with a double-pitched roof featuring a broken eave, giving the row a slightly rustic silhouette.

The real interest is in the details: brick-framed windows in the Modernisme style, along with ironwork, mouldings and lintels that follow the same decorative language used across Catalan Modernisme architecture. It's this restrained, small-scale ornamentation — rather than any single grand facade — that earned the group protected status and a place on the city's architecture trail alongside far more famous buildings.

What is the history behind it?

The six houses were commissioned by Jaume Corbera i Tiana, a Granollers businessman who made his fortune during the boom of the local textile industry. The project was built specifically for working-class families, part of a wider early-20th-century push to give factory workers healthier, self-contained housing instead of dense urban tenements — a social idea as much as an architectural one.

The buildings' use has since changed. Today the site houses a day and residential care centre for elderly people, run as part of Granollers' municipal social services network. The original residential shell and facades have been preserved even as the interior function shifted to meet the city's current needs.

When should you visit, and how do you plan it?

Because the buildings now operate as a care facility, a visit to Can Mònic means viewing the exterior and the overall urban layout rather than going inside — it works best as a quick stop along a longer walk through Granollers' Modernisme route, which also takes in former factories and townhouses closer to the centre. Any time of year works, since Granollers has a mild Mediterranean climate; spring and autumn are especially pleasant, avoiding the summer heat.

Can Mònic fits naturally into a day trip from Barcelona, paired with a walk around Granollers' historic centre, its market, and the other early-20th-century buildings nearby.

Frequently asked questions

Can you go inside Can Mònic? No — the buildings now function as a care centre for elderly residents and are only accessible to residents and staff. Visitors view the ensemble from the street as a piece of urban architecture.

How many houses make up the complex? Six single-family homes, built in a single row at the same time and in the same style.

Who financed the construction of Can Mònic? Jaume Corbera i Tiana, a local businessman who grew wealthy from Granollers' textile industry, funded the houses for working-class families.

When was it built? The row dates from 1923 and has remained part of Granollers' urban fabric ever since.