Ermita de Sant Medir, Romanesque chapel in Sant Cugat del Vallès, Spain.
The Ermita de Sant Medir is a Romanesque chapel in the Collserola hills, close to Sant Cugat del Vallès, built on a rectangular plan with a small sacristy, a bell tower, and a stone entrance door. The building sits on a wooded rise and is surrounded by trees on most sides.
The chapel was originally known as Sant Emeteri and was built near a Roman road that linked Egara to Barcino through Castrum Octavianum. Over time, the saint's name shifted in local speech, and the site kept its role as a place of worship through the centuries.
Every year on March 3, people from the surrounding area walk or ride on horseback to the chapel to honor the saint it is dedicated to. Candy sellers set up stalls around the entrance on that day, giving the site the feel of a small local fair.
The chapel can be reached by car, and the surrounding area has picnic tables and drinking water points. The wooded grounds stay shaded for most of the day, so a visit pairs well with a walk through the nearby paths.
The name Sant Medir is a popular transformation of Sant Emeteri, an early Christian martyr whose name became almost unrecognizable through centuries of local speech. This kind of gradual name shift is rare enough that linguists use it as a reference example when studying how saint names change in Catalan.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 60,000 contributors worldwide.
