Food History of Salou

Key eras

Roman Barenys, 1st century BC to 2nd century AD

Near Ponent beach lie the remains of the Roman villa of Barenys, dated from the late 1st century BC to the 2nd century AD. Its rectangular workshop made building materials and the amphorae used to carry and export wine, so the first trade documented on this shore was in wine, shipped from what became Salou.

A medieval port of the Crown of Aragon, 1194 to 1229

Salou's population charter dates from 1194, granted by Alfons I, and its natural harbour became one of the main ports of the Crown of Aragon. In September 1229 King Jaume I gathered his fleet here to sail for the conquest of Mallorca, the moment the town still remembers with its Festa del Rei Jaume I and medieval market each September.

Pirates and the Torre Vella, 14th to 17th century

Pirate raids from North Africa pushed the coast to defend itself: Archbishop Pere de Cardona ordered the Torre Vella built in 1530, yet the raids went on through the 16th century. In 1673 the archdiocese gave town rights to Vila-seca, which gradually took over Salou and its port, a tie that lasted until the 20th century.

Port trade, decline and the first bathers, 18th and 19th centuries

The port kept its commercial weight through the 18th century and into the early 19th, then declined and was closed to trade by the mid-19th century. Bathing huts were allowed on Ponent beach in 1863, the railway station opened in 1865 and the Carrilet tram from Reus arrived in 1887, bringing the people of Reus to the sea.

Seaside villas and mass tourism, 1920s to 1995

From the 1920s modernist villas went up along Passeig Jaume I, several designed by Gaudí's collaborator Domènec Sugrañes. Tourism boomed from the 1960s and Salou won its independence from Vila-seca by a Supreme Court ruling of 30 October 1989; the PortAventura theme park opened on its edge in 1995.

A gastronomic calendar, 2020s

In April 2024 the town hall and the Salou hoteliers' association presented an annual food calendar under the Salou Food Experience label: the Thursday Tasta Salou route, rice days in spring, the Sabor Salou street food market, squid days in autumn and a Christmas vermouth route. The Festa del Calamar reached its 50th edition in 2025.

Immigrant influences

• The people of Reus: Reus families were the main users of Salou's beach from the 1920s, arriving on the Carrilet tram and building the seafront villas; Salou's Christmas route still pours vermouth from the region.
• Fishermen of the Tarragona coast: The fishermen of El Serrallo in Tarragona are credited with romesco, the fish stew and sauce that runs through Salou's cooking, and Salou's own fishermen still stage the Calada de les Malles.
• International visitors since the 1960s: Mass tourism from the 1960s brought British and Irish pubs, Dutch snack bars, Indian, Thai and Japanese kitchens to the Llevant hotel grid alongside the rice houses.

Signature innovations

• Tasta Salou: a Thursday route of small plates with a glass of wine or cava at a fixed price.
• Per a gustos, els arrossos: a month of rice menus across Salou restaurants each spring.
• Festa del Calamar: a week-long squid-fishing contest ending in a public tasting on the breakwater.
• Sabor Salou: a three-day street food market on Passeig Jaume I each May.
• Fem el Vermut a Salou: a midday vermouth-and-tapa route in the weeks before Christmas.