This plan shows the widening project for Mataró, in Catalonia, designed by the architect Emili Cabañes Rabassa and the civil engineer Melcior de Palau i Català at the request of the city council in 1878. A lithographed version was published by the Thomas house in Barcelona, of which this is possibly a copy.

The map is oriented northwest at the top, in order to show the Mediterranean coastline at the bottom of the map. The work joins the historical layout of the city in the central part (in black) with the layout planned for the urban expansion (in red), which fills in the gaps in the city and extends towards all possible ends. Unlike the Cerdá Plan, which defined the expansion of Barcelona, here the authors chose to respect the layout of the territory and traditional urban planning.

The context of the map shows a city in full industrial expansion, after becoming the first on the Iberian Peninsula to be served by the railway, whose station can be seen at the bottom. This milestone accelerated the growth of the textile industry and the arrival of labour. The ensanche plan was the response to the disorderly growth that followed.

Sources

• Map of Mataró and its expansion