Sabadell is an industrial city in the Vallès Occidental comarca, about thirty kilometers north of Barcelona. For centuries it was the center of Catalonia's wool and textile industry, earning comparisons to Manchester. The old factory buildings, many of them striking examples of industrial Modernisme, give parts of the city a distinctive character that is quite different from the surrounding Catalan towns.
The city center has a pleasant, lived-in feel, with the Plaça de Sant Roc at its heart and a good selection of local restaurants where you can eat well for a fraction of Barcelona prices. The Vapor Buxeda, a restored nineteenth-century textile factory, now houses cultural facilities and serves as a reminder of the industry that built the city. The Museu d'Art de Sabadell has a small but respectable collection. Most visitors will find Sabadell worth a half-day on the way to somewhere else, though the Catalan food scene here is authentic and unpretentious.