Plaça Major

The Plaça Major is the heart of Sant Mateu and the reason most visitors come. It is a long, irregular space lined on three sides with stone arcades — porxes — running below the upper-storey façades of the medieval and Renaissance houses that surround it. Several of those houses still have their original Gothic and Renaissance doorways and coats of arms.

The square is at its best in the late afternoon when the low sun catches the arcades and the cafés put their tables out. On Friday morning a small market sets up here, mostly selling local produce and a handful of cured meats and cheeses. From here every other sight in Sant Mateu is a short walk.

things to do sight
A story
The arcaded square once held the Corts del Maestrat, the regional parliament of the Order of Montesa, and its proportions still reflect that role — far grander than a town of two thousand would normally have. The fountain in the centre, a 17th-century replacement of an earlier one, still uses water from the medieval aqueduct that brought it down from springs above the town.