The Castle of the Marqueses of Santa María de Barberá is located above the town of Vilassar de Dalt, at an altitude of 135 m in the coastal mountains, 26 km northeast of Barcelona and 7 km from Mataró, the capital of the Maresme area.
The climate is extraordinarily mild, a factor that has largely contributed to the excellent conditions of conservation of the Library and Archives kept in the castle.
It was born from a watchtower already documented in the 11th and 12th centuries and, at the end of the 13th century, the extension began, going from being a defensive element to a castle palace.
In the fourteenth century the wall, the moat, and the magnificent vaulted or coffered rooms were built. At the beginning of the 15th century, the chapel was moved outside the original tower. Also in 1402 it received a brief pontifical privilege to celebrate masses and trades.
In 1955, Joaquín de Sarriera y de Losada, Hon. The Marquis of Santa Maria de Barberá y de la Manresana, father of the current Marquis, together with his wife, Inés Fernández de Muniaín y Odriozola, began a program of restoration and architectural preservation of the castle and its surroundings.
The Hon. Don Ramón de Sarriera y Fernández de Muniaín and his wife Doña Marcela Bernat Valenzuela, current Marquises of Santa María de Barberà, undertook important works in the restoration and fitting out of the castle and gardens.
They carried out considerable renovation and refurbishment works in the interior architecture of the castle to make it suitable for living, providing it with the best conditions of comfort and extreme conditions to adapt it to current needs. They also undertook the total restoration of the furniture and catalogued all the works of art that the castle contains.
They created the archive dependencies following the preservation and conservation guidelines of Columbia University, proceeding to the conservation, protection and modernisation of the archival and bibliographic funds.
In one of the chapters of the publication of the Pinós Genealogy manuscript, the history of the Castle of Vilassar de Dalt and that of the Archive of the Marquesses of Santa María de Barberà, located in this emblematic building, are described.
