Raval de Mar

EL RAVAL DE MAR

Fishermen’s Quarter of Pineda

We are at the end of Carrer de Mar where, around the year 1760, when the coast no longer suffered from pirate attacks, the Mar fishermen’s Quarter was born. In Pineda there were already fishermen, many of them lived in the inner part of the town and others built houses in the neighbourhood in search of a livelihood by means of fishing.

Imagine how separated this neighborhood was from the town centre that its inhabitants said they were “going to town” when heading to Pineda. It was a quarter that was born and grew up with its own character.

Towards the year 1790 in Pineda there were 22 fishing boats, some large ships and a total of 100 men registered as seafarers.

The profession of fisherman is very hard, and in those days it was even more so, since they spent many hours at sea, whether it was cold or hot, rain or shine. Day after day they worked at dawn for trawling or at night, for spider web fishing, and also carrying the boxes full of fish, weaving the nets, mending the boats.

The houses that the fishermen built in the Mar Quarter were very small, so much so that they called them “kitchen houses”, but they had the advantage that they were very close to the sea, where they worked. They had a kitchen on the ground floor, a room on the first floor and two patios. One in the front that served as a social meeting place, called “La Placeta”. A place where the feast of Sant Pere was celebrated, with its tent, and, if the economic situation allowed it, that also served to expand the house until it reached the line of the street. The second patio was in the back, where most of the families had a vegetables garden, which was also the place where the fishermen fixed their nets.