Can Tatai

Can Tatai is a historic masia (traditional Catalan farmhouse) in Agell, a hamlet within the municipality of Cabrera de Mar, in the Maresme district of Barcelona province.

What is this place?

The building was originally called Can Suari. It took its current name after 1913, when the property was bought by Manuel Tatay i Nogueres, whose surname gave the farmhouse its new identity. Can Tatai is listed in the local and Catalan cultural heritage inventories as an example of the traditional rural architecture of Maresme.

What will you see?

Can Tatai follows a basilical layout, with three bays running perpendicular to the façade, under a two-pitched roof. The main volume is a three-body structure on two levels — ground floor and upper floor — with a later extension added to the right side that follows the descending line of the main roof, giving the whole ensemble a compact, austere look.

The main entrance is framed by a semicircular arched portal built from eleven large stone voussoirs, each roughly 0.95 metres long — one of the building's most distinctive architectural details. The windows have stone lintels, jambs and sills, believed to date from the 17th century, suggesting the farmhouse has stood in this form for several centuries, even though its roots as Can Suari go back further.

The façade also preserves a sundial: a rectangular ceramic piece of the vertical declining type. It is registered in the sundial inventory kept by the Catalan Society of Gnomonics, making it a small but concrete detail worth looking for if you're interested in historic timekeeping devices.

How do you get there?

Can Tatai sits in Agell, in the rural outskirts of Cabrera de Mar, in the heart of Maresme, close to the Mediterranean coast north of Barcelona. The easiest way to reach it is by car, since the farmhouse lies outside the town centre, surrounded by fields and the dirt tracks typical of this countryside. Routes from the centre of Cabrera de Mar or the nearby town of Vilassar de Mar lead into the municipality's rural interior toward the property.

When should you visit?

Since the building is mainly seen from the outside, it's best visited in good daylight — morning or late afternoon — when the stone portal and the sundial are easiest to appreciate. Spring and autumn are comfortable seasons for walking through the surrounding Maresme farmland, with milder temperatures than in the height of summer.

Why visit Can Tatai?

This isn't a fully equipped tourist site — it's an authentic piece of the Maresme rural landscape, a farmhouse that has passed through different owners while still carrying visible traces of successive eras: a portal rooted in older building traditions, 17th-century windows, and a 20th-century extension. For anyone interested in Catalan rural architecture or local family history, it's a concrete, tangible stop on a route through Cabrera de Mar.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Can Tatai? It's a historic masia (traditional Catalan farmhouse) in Agell, part of the municipality of Cabrera de Mar, listed in the region's cultural heritage inventory.

Where does the name Can Tatai come from? The building was originally called Can Suari. It was renamed after 1913, when Manuel Tatay i Nogueres acquired the property.

What's the most distinctive architectural feature? The entrance portal, built with a semicircular arch of eleven large stone voussoirs, and the historic ceramic sundial on the façade.

Can you visit the interior? Can Tatai is a private rural property — the main draw is its exterior architecture, best viewed from the road or the surrounding fields.