Cal Ros de les Cabres

Cal Ros is a Roman era villa that was run as a wine production and ceramics centre between the 2^nd century BC and 5^th century AD.It was discovered in 1899 by the property’s owner, Thomas Morrison, a British citizen living in Catalonia for business purposes, when he found a polychrome mosaic, walls and abundant pottery.

The archaeological works have been sporadic and unequal, but have documented the residential area of the villa by its different mosaics and stuccoed walls and the rustic part, allocated to workshops and storerooms for farm work:amphora kiln, deposits and storage of dolia (enormous spherical pottery vessels for storing and transporting food and drink) and rubbish tips.   

Notable finds at the archaeological site include the discovery by J. Serra Ràfols (1946) of a mosaic –now at the Archaeology Museum of Catalonia– and a bronze signet ring bearing the inscription Publi Valeri Euryali, a Roman surname and first known resident of Masnou.

The amphorae made at Cal Ros were used to package the famous wine produced by the Laietani (ancient Iberian people that inhabited the area where Barcelona is today) and transport it by sea to the rest of the Roman Empire, reaching such distant lands as northern Gaul, now Germany.

The name Cal Ros de les Cabres (Blond House of Goats) refers to the tenant farmer who lived there, Isidre Ramentol, who had blonde hair and cared for the goats.