225 years of history and many secrets

In 1820 the concept of "intelligence" appeared for the first time in France. industrial revolution to refer to all the changes being driven by England and Scotland that would ultimately transform humanity. Inventors were everywhere. Each creation opened its doors to new inventions that transformed jobs, which were increasingly concentrated in cities. Photography was already in the offing, but hadn't yet been invented. If it had existed, perhaps we would have some image of when Joan Coca and his wife, Maria Àngela, opened the Hostal Coca in Torredembarra, which opened its doors that same year as 1820 as a laying house, where the horses of travelers or mail carriers could rest.

The establishment was fed mainly by travelers who went from Vilafranca to Tarragona or Reus and stopped in Torredembarra for the night. One of the current dining rooms where some Torrenco residents have coffee in the morning used to be the stables where the horses that pulled the cart used to rest. "Alfonso XIII once came to Barcelona to attend a fair and stopped here for lunch," explains Matilde Martos, 69, the current owner of the inn, while showing historical photographs of the establishment. "We're the oldest inn in the entire district," she says.

Martos arrived in Torredembarra when she was 10 years old. Her family emigrated from a village in Granada and settled near the hostel. When Matilde left early to go to the photography factory where she worked, Joan, the future heir to the hostel, saw her passing by and would buy her a piece. "'I have to go buy croissants,' he told me, but it was a lie," Matilde assures. The croissant excuse turned into a dinner, and they ended up getting married. Matilde started working at the hostel at 23 and hasn't stopped yet. "Joan treated me with great affection," Matilde recalls. He died five years ago, and she, with the help of her daughters, Carolina and Meritxell Coca, who now represent the fifth generation, continued the family business.

In these 225 years of existence, almost everything has happened inside the hostel. Matilde knows many of the stories because she's experienced them or because her father-in-law told her, but she's too experienced to break the professional secret. "If I told you all the secrets we have..." she says with a smile.

Restaurant and terrace

The hostel has 41 rooms and is doing well: tourists, athletes, workers... In fact, it doesn't have much competition within the municipality, although, as in the rest of the country, tourist apartments or flats that rent rooms are proliferating, according to Matilde. The establishment also makes a living from the restaurant and the terrace across the street, in a prime area of Torredembarra. Years ago, in addition to tourism, which has never been lacking, many celebrations, weddings, and communions were held there, and there were also many guests who came to have a vermouth after mass.

"I'm very excited when a guest comes with their children and tells me that as a child they used to come here with their parents and ask me to please not make any changes to the premises, to keep the beams and everything just as they are," says Matilde. Among the establishment's decor are awards and recognitions from throughout its history, as well as some of the models that Torrent artist Antoni Sastre made five years ago in honor of the establishment's 200th anniversary. "That one over there is the carriage Alfonso XIII came in," says Martos, pointing to one of the reproductions.