The oldest documented part of Can Riera de la Pineda dates from 917. From the converted barn and the living room at the top of the house, the view crosses the valley to Montsoriu, a castle on a hill of the Montseny whose buildings run from the tenth century to the fifteenth. Around the house lie 260 hectares of the estate’s own woods, fields and hills, with a creek running through them and no neighbours. The masia, two kilometres from Arbúcies in the Catalan province of Girona, is let for one wedding at a time, for up to 300 guests, and the whole estate goes with it.
How a Catalan masia grew
A masia is the farmhouse at the heart of a Catalan rural estate, the mas. In the traditional form the ground floor served the farm and often housed the animals, the family lived on the floor above, and a granary or a pigeon loft sometimes sat over that; some masias had a chapel of their own. Can Riera reached its present size during the nineteenth century, and that is the house that was restored in 2004, its stone walls and timber beams kept and its rooms brought up to modern comfort.
It stands about 300 metres above sea level in La Selva, on the edge of the Montseny Natural Park. UNESCO designated the Montseny massif a biosphere reserve in 1978, and the Generalitat of Catalonia made it a natural park in 1987. Its highest summits, Turó de l’Home and Les Agudes, rise above 1,700 metres, and the Montseny brook newt, which is critically endangered, is known from these mountains and nowhere else.
Arbúcies, the nearest town, has a long history of its own. The area was settled by the Iberians and later by the Romans, and on 14 January 1714, during the War of the Spanish Succession, local militia defeated Bourbon troops at the Battle of Arbúcies; the town was burnt in the reprisals that followed. Today it is a town of some 6,600 people, and its main industry is building bus chassis.
Montsoriu across the valley
In the Middle Ages Montsoriu was the residence of the Viscounts of Cabrera. Its outer walls are a Romanesque fortification and the rooms inside them a Gothic palace, and the castle is open to visitors, an outing for guests who arrive a day or two before the wedding.
Inside the masia, the living room on the top floor looks out over the valley to the castle. It is the room set aside for getting ready, where the bride and her closest friends can dress with Montsoriu in the window.
By the creek, under the plane tree or in the chapel
Ceremonies at Can Riera can be religious, civil or symbolic, and can be held in any of the outdoor or covered spaces; the estate’s events team takes on the official paperwork for a marriage and the timing of each step, and can engage the priest, the judge or a master of ceremonies for a symbolic service, along with live musicians for the vows. La Riera, a few steps from the house, is a setting for ceremonies beside the creek, among the trees. Hydrangeas is a corner next to the main house, where a London plane more than a century old stands among hydrangea beds; it seats 150 and looks out over the valley. The gardens in front of the house are wide, with shaded corners under the trees.
For a religious wedding there is the chapel, a small building of stone with modernist decoration and two large glass doors that open it to the gardens. It seats 54 guests besides the couple. The converted barn has a timber ceiling, Catalan tiled floors and wide openings towards the Montseny and Montsoriu, and seats 72 guests besides the couple. Both rooms have other uses later in the day: the chapel as a lounge, a room for a small dinner or a dance floor, and the barn as a sitting room with views over the swimming pool.
Dinner under the chandeliers or the stars
The main hall is the largest room on the estate: 380 square metres under a tall timber roof with no pillars, hung with handmade iron chandeliers. Its large windows roll up, so on a fine evening the room opens straight onto the garden. It seats 300 guests for dinner and holds 600 for a standing reception, and the caterers have their own area under the same roof, where they can unload and set up to work.
The garden in front of the hall is laid out for suppers in the open air, and it runs on to the creek and the swimming pool. Around the pool, drinks, aperitifs and the dancing can be set beside an old olive tree that is lit after dark. If the weather turns, a second covered space, joined to the main hall by a covered walkway, holds 280 guests.
Catering is brought in. The couple chooses the caterer from a list of Catalan kitchens the estate recommends, contracts it separately from the venue, and sets the menu with them, whether that is lunch in the garden or a seated dinner in the main hall. Can Riera keeps its own stock of decorations for hire, in styles from rural to minimalist, with no delivery cost, and its team can arrange the flowers, the musicians, the photographer and the running order of the day. The same team can also take on the invitations, the seating plan, hair and make-up, and on the day itself the set-up, the timing and the coordination of every supplier, staying until the party ends.
A house party for eighteen
The masia sleeps around eighteen, in seven suites and two double rooms that keep their beams and stone walls, are generous in size and natural light, and are furnished with restored vintage pieces; two of the rooms have space for an extra bed or a cot. That is enough for the couple, the wedding party and their closest guests to wake up on the estate the morning after. Everyone else stays nearby, and the events team works with hotels, inns and farmhouses in the area and arranges the shuttles and taxis that bring guests in for the day.
The estate is reached from the GI-553 road outside Arbúcies. Girona Airport is about 35 minutes away by car and Barcelona about an hour, so guests can fly into either city. Venue hire starts from around €4,500 for up to 100 guests and covers exclusive use of the masia and its land; the caterer is a separate contract. For other estates in the region, read our Edit on Torre Sever, a forest wedding estate near Barcelona, and see weddings in Catalonia and the Spain Wedding Atlas.
Who sleeps on the estate
The decision to make first is the guest list for the house. Up to 300 can marry and dine at Can Riera, but only around eighteen can stay, so a couple needs to choose who wakes up in the masia and book rooms nearby for everyone else early. Then read the Can Riera de la Pineda profile and check your date.
