Figueres and Dali holiday on the Costa Brava

On Figueres

Figueras (Catalan Figueres) is the capital of the Catalan region of Alt Empordà and has 44,255 inhabitants. Located in the northeast of Catalonia, is the most important city near the border with France and forced stopping point for travelers and tourists to and from Spain. It is located 136 km from Barcelona. The current name derives from Ficaris of the Visigoth. In 1267 King James I of Aragon granted privileges and years later Hugo IV, Count of Ampurias, on fire.

Dalí Theatre Museum

Salvador Dalí in his will bequeathed a wealth of works of art, which were shared between Dalí Theatre-Museum and the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid.

The artist personally took charge of the museum project, so much so that within the complex is the last room and his tomb.

The building that houses a theater was built in 1849. In 1939, during the Spanish Civil War, was destroyed by fire, which left standing only the structure of what had been a beautiful neoclassical building. The official opening comes the October 28, 1974, when the museum had not yet been completed.

This theater had a special meaning for Dali, because he was born in Figueres and had exhibited his first two works in the same theater during a paint sample. Each environment, each space of the museum is a work of art, with interesting combinations of paintings, sculptures, furniture, decorations and all kinds of curiosities. In many rooms the walls and ceilings are completely covered with huge murals: some are original compositions while others are extensions of famous paintings.

Other attractions to see in Figueres

Castillo de San Fernando (Castell de Sant Ferran), built during the reign of Ferdinand VI of Spain, in 1743, according to the plans of John Martin and Peter Martin Zermeno Zermeno Paredes. Pentagonal in plan, its perimeter reaches 5.6 km, with the largest monument in Catalonia and one of the most remarkable fortified complex in the world for all its outer fortifications.

Parish Church of San Pedro, with Gothic nave and chapels between the buttresses. The header and the neo-Gothic bell tower are added. To get closer to the culture and monuments of this beautiful city a good option is to rent an apartment on the Costa Brava.

The Toy Museum of Catalonia was inaugurated in 1982 on the premises of the former Hotel Paris (former mansion of the Baron de Terra), the Rambla de Figueres. Some recent works of rehabilitation and adaptation have allowed triple the initial space of the Museum reopened on December 12, 1998. The museum displays more than 4,000 pieces: zoetrope, Meccans, little theaters, animals and cardboard horses, kitchens, balls, tops, planes, cars, trains, dolls, puppets, magic sets, games for blind, costumes, cut-outs, handles, soldiers, robots, steam engines, teddy bears, tricycles, scooters ... Many of these pieces are accompanied by old photographs of children with their toys, which help us to situate chronologically and see how it was played at that time. Some toys had belonged to people like Ana Maria and Salvador Dali, Federico Garcia Lorca, Joan Miró, Josep Palau and Fabre, Brossa, Quim Monzo, Frederic Amat ... The Museum has a Center for Documentation and Research on games and toys, Brossa-Fregoli auditorium and space for outdoor activities: the roof of the Museum. The visit of the collection can have multiple readings: through the nostalgic toys for our grandfathers and grandmothers and the observation, which traces the history of how the scientific and technical advances of the moment have influenced the design of games and toys, just as they have done and continue to do historical events and artistic movements.

The Museum of the Empordà chronological present a wide array of art and archeology of our region, from prehistory to the present day, with a special focus on Catalan painting ampurdanesa of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The tour begins with a sample of the archaeological findings of Alt Empordà, from the Neolithic to the Romanization, which includes a collection of personal ornaments, ceramics Greek black-figure and red glass containers. It continues with medieval and modern times, where the capitals stand out from the monastery of San Pedro de Rodas and deposits of works from the Prado Museum (Mengs, Mignard, Herrera ...). Through the works of Pinazo, Sorolla, Nonell, Marti Alsina, Berga Boix, Houses, Gargallo, Gimeno, Mir, Masriera, Sunyer, seas, Dunyach and Casanovas, among others, one can follow the path of Catalan art from the mid nineteenth century to the early avant-garde and modernism, with works by Tapias, Ponce and Cuixart. Finally, Comalat, Bonaterra, Llavaneres, Eusebi de Puig, Nunez, Salvador Dalí, Santos Torroella Angels, Angel Planells, Joan Massanet, Evarist Vallès, Joan Sibecas, Joan Padern, Pujolboira, Josep Lluís Roura and Ministral, among many others, we show the evolution of painting ampurdanesa through realistic landscape, surrealism, abstraction, conceptual and new figuration.

The museum also displays throughout the year various exhibitions. The holidays Figueras, called "Les Fest Santa Creu" (Feast of the Holy Cross is celebrated in early May.