Miami Beach

The nucleus of Miami Platja is located between Miramar and the river of Llastres, occupying the main seafront of the municipality. From the coast it offers us an excellent perspective of the Gulf of Sant Jordi, unbeatable from the top of the cliffs. With nine winding coves and extensive and uncrowded beaches, Miami Playa is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful, unique and unknown places on the Costa Daurada. In the municipality as a whole, today it is the nucleus that presents the greatest gastronomic, hospitality and service offer.

Miami Playa developed strongly in the context of economic growth as a result of “developmentalism” and the promotion of mass tourism in the late 50s and 60s of the last century. It is in this economic context, within the framework of the economic and future opportunities offered by sun and beach tourism, which took a lot of private initiatives to develop and urbanize areas of the coast that were still virgin. The case of Marcel·lí Esquius i Garcia (1896-1969), promoter and founder of Miami Platja in 1952, is one of the most obvious examples. Esquius found in the coast of Mont-roig del Camp the ideal place to promote a new urbanization in an environment that reminded him of the Costa Brava. His determination made his dream possible: to turn what was once the hunting ground of the Marquis of Marianao into a unique coastal nucleus that today houses most of the population of the entire municipality, and that in the summer season welcomes a floating population of between 80,000 and 90,000 people.

The current population is made up of a rich and diverse demographic. In those first years of urban development, people from various parts of the state settled in search of new job opportunities, especially linked to the tourism and construction sectors. Today, those first families have put down roots in what they already consider their village, and some of them have already reached the third generation. In recent decades, people from all over Europe and other non-EU countries have been consolidating and growing the population of Miami Playa.

On an architectural level, it is worth mentioning the church of Santa Maria Magdalena, which dates from 1964, a beautiful example of contemporary religious art influenced by the ideas that would inspire the Second Vatican Council. The church – which cost three million pesetas, €18,000 today – was donated by Marcel·lí Esquius to the Archbishopric of Tarragona. The first stone was laid by Cardinal Benjamín de Arriba y Castro in 1961.

As a curious fact, on July 24, 1960, Amalia Fleming, widow of the discoverer of penicillin Alexander Fleming, inaugurated a square and a bust in Miami Playa in honor of the English Nobel Prize winner.