Village
Cadaqués is a fishing village at the eastern end of the Alt Empordà, in Girona, the easternmost point of the Iberian Peninsula. Isolated by the hills of Puig de Paní and Puig de Bufadors, it lived facing the sea until the late 19th century. Its old quarter, once walled, occupies a rocky hill crowned by the white church of Santa María and descends to the cove of Llané Grande through narrow slate-paved streets. It was occupied by French troops in 1655 and returned to the Spanish Crown in 1659 under the Treaty of the Pyrenees. Its prolonged isolation attracted, from the early 20th century, artists such as Dalí and Picasso, captivated by its white houses and Mediterranean light; the lack of a motorway has preserved its isolated and genuine character.
Village
Portlligat is a small fishing hamlet in the municipality of Cadaqués, on the Cap de Creus, sheltered from the Mediterranean by the island of Portlligat and the islet of Sa Farnera. It was traditionally the base of Cadaqués' lobster fishermen, although today hardly any boats remain moored there. It owes its international fame to Salvador Dalí, who lived here from 1930 until the death of his wife Gala in 1982, in a house formed by a labyrinth of old fishermen's huts that he kept extending over forty years and which today is visited as the Casa-Museu. Dalí devised a system of mirrors so that the sun, rising over the easternmost point of peninsular Spain, would enter his bed first. In the local cemetery lies the poet Rosa Leveroni.
Monument
The church of Santa Maria de Cadaqués, the parish church of the town, occupies the highest point of the village and is one of the most emblematic elements of its landscape. With a single nave, side chapels and a polygonal apse, it houses one of the great Baroque altarpieces of Catalonia, the work of sculptors Pau Costa and Joan Torras, dated 1729 and gilded in 1788, presided over by the Mare de Déu de l'Esperança and crowned by the image of Saint Thomas, co-patron of the town. Beneath the bell tower its organ is also preserved, one of the oldest in Catalonia, built between 1689 and 1690 by Josep Boscà and restored between 1982 and 2004 by Gerhard Grenzing.
Monument
House in Portlligat (Cadaqués) where Dalí and Gala lived and worked between 1930 and 1982, formed by the grouping of several fishermen's huts converted into a labyrinthine space of inspiration. In 1929, after breaking with his father and drawn by the isolation of the place, Dalí bought the first fisherman's hut with 20,000 francs advanced by the Viscount of Noailles, adding others to it over forty years until forming the current complex, which he himself described as “a true biological structure”. Visitors who passed through the house included Walt Disney and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. After Gala's death in 1982, Dalí never returned to Portlligat, and the house, closed after his own death in 1989, became a museum from 1994 onward.
Monument
The Cap de Creus lighthouse, in the municipality of Cadaqués, is the easternmost lighthouse on the Iberian Peninsula, 500 metres from the tip of the cape, in the area known as punta de l'Esquena. Its construction was decided in 1847 and it was opened in 1853, nineteen months after the Llobregat lighthouse, making it the second oldest in Catalonia; a plaque above the door recalls that date under the reign of Isabella II. Square in plan, with an eleven-metre signal tower remodelled on several occasions, it stands next to the remains of a medieval watchtower already documented in 1385. Today it houses an interpretation centre of the Cap de Creus Natural Park.
Monument
Fortress located on the Sant Jaume hill, above the old town of Cadaqués, with commanding views over the bay; today converted into a viewpoint and declared a Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection). Its origin is not well known, although it was probably built in the 17th century; it was destroyed by the English and rebuilt by the French during the Napoleonic Wars, so the present structure dates from the 19th century. Square in plan, with four attached bodies in the manner of bastions, it preserves on two of its walls the coping of triangular merlons. Despite its appearance as a large tower, it never had a defensive function, but rather one of surveillance and signalling, and although it is often called the castle of Cadaqués, it is in fact a military structure distinct from the castle proper.
Nature
The Cap de Creus Natural Park, within the municipality of Cadaqués and other villages of the Alt Empordà, was the first maritime-terrestrial natural park in Catalonia, created by Law 4/1998. It covers 13,886 hectares, of which 10,813 are on land and 3,073 at sea, and also extends into Llançà, Palau-saverdera, Pau, Port de la Selva, Roses, la Selva de Mar and Vilajuïga. It is structured around the Rodes or Verdera mountain range, with a coastline of cliffs, unspoiled coves and granite and schist rock formations shaped by the tramontana wind and the sea over thousands of years; the scrubland and dry meadow vegetation contrasts with the bareness of the coastal landscape. Its protected seabed is prized for diving and its trails for hiking.
Nature
El Pení is a 606.6-metre spur of the sierra de Rodes, on the Cap de Creus peninsula, overlooking the town and bay of Cadaqués to the southwest and the bay of Roses to the northeast, with 360-degree views over the whole cape. On its summit stand the installations of a Spanish Air Force radar station, built by the United States in 1959. On its slopes, on 6 December 1942, during the Second World War, a US B-26 electronic reconnaissance aircraft bound for the south of France crashed. The origin of the mountain's name is uncertain, and Celtic, Greek, Latin and Hebrew origins have all been claimed for it.
Nature
A headland located at the northern tip of the Costa Brava, in the municipality of Cadaqués, at the end of a small peninsula that separates the Gulf of Roses, to the south, from the Gulf of Lion, to the north; it is the easternmost point of the Iberian Peninsula and gives its name to the natural park that surrounds it. In the area it is also known as Cap del Diable, and the waters it separates as mar d'Amunt and mar d'Avall. On the promontory closest to the point, at an altitude of 87 metres, stands a lighthouse built on the foundations of a Roman signal tower that in the late Middle Ages also served as a watchtower. The place name itself, from the Latin Caput Kerus, comes from an Iberian word meaning a stony heap.
Nature
Cala Culip is a small bay in the Cap de Creus Natural Park, in the municipality of Cadaqués, facing north and separated from Cala Jugadora by the isthmus of the headland. It contains the beaches dels Pescadors and es Gentils, and beneath its waters lies a veritable graveyard of Phoenician, Greek and Roman shipwrecks, for the cove, strewn with rocky reefs and fully exposed to the tramontane wind, proved a trap in bad weather. Its name, formerly Calipo, may be linked to the nymph Calypso, who made Odysseus fall in love with her in Greek mythology. This landscape inspired several works by Salvador Dalí, such as The Great Masturbator.
Nature
Cala Galladera is a small bay on the Cap de Creus coast, in the municipality of El Port de la Selva, on the boundary with Cadaqués, within the natural park. Facing east, it is well sheltered from the tramontane wind by the coast's inward-curving shape; it retains a small hut built by fishermen from Llançà. It has a maximum depth of 5 metres, with a seabed covered in posidonia, although in recent years the presence of the invasive alga Caulerpa cylindracea has been detected there. It is separated from Cala Portaló by the pointed silhouette of the island of the same name. In 1994 the remains of a 1st-2nd century BC shipwreck were discovered on its seabed, a ship laden with wine amphorae that had set sail from Empúries and been caught by a storm.
Nature
A small cove in the bay of the same name, within the Cap de Creus Natural Park, next to the Punta d'en Cudera, six kilometres from the centre of Cadaqués (Alt Empordà). It is 50 metres long and 10 metres wide on average, with a gravel and pebble bottom much prized by diving and snorkelling enthusiasts, facing south and sheltered from the tramontane wind. It is reached by a path that descends from the old coastal path. Its name is the diminutive of guilla (vixen), an animal that once inhabited the area; in the past, eixugador fishing was practised there, using a night fire to attract fish.
Nature
A cove in the Cap de Creus Natural Park, in the municipality of Cadaqués, made up of two small beaches close to each other, the Platja Gran de Cala Jugadora and the Platja dels Barrilers, of coarse sand and stones. It is reached by a path about 250 metres from the road that runs from Cadaqués to the Cap de Creus lighthouse. Geologically it marks the transition between the area's schist and granite, and it is a place where nudism is practised. Its name comes from the fishermen's habit of playing cards while waiting for the tramontane wind to ease so they could cast their nets or set out to fish in the mar de Amunt.
Nature
A cove of great value to local fishermen, with crystal-clear waters and an approach on foot of more than 4 km that keeps it well preserved. It opens onto the northern coast of Cap de Creus, within the Golfet bay and the Cap de Creus natural park, between Punta Ronyosa and Punta dels Farallons, and remains very exposed to the tramontane wind. It is reached along the GR-11 long-distance trail from Port de la Selva. Because of its orientation it collects plankton carried by the currents, which multiplies the catch of bonito and sardines compared with other fishing grounds on the headland. Beside the beach stands the Cala Prona hut, an old fishermen's shelter included in Catalonia's Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Its name comes from «pregona», meaning deep, on account of the depth of its waters.
Nature
Cala Culleró is a small natural beach in the municipality of Cadaqués (Alt Empordà), located within the Cap de Creus Natural Park, very close to the Cap de Creus lighthouse and facing the island of Culleró. Facing north-northwest, it is barely 21 metres long and 5 metres wide, made up of gravel and pebbles, and remains very exposed to the tramontane wind and to the ground swell. Around it unfolds a landscape of rocks sculpted by water and wind, some with their own names and officially listed, such as the rock of the Great Masturbator, so named by Salvador Dalí, or the rocks of l'Àliga and el Camell. Nudism is practised on this beach.
Nature
A small bay at Port Lligat, in the municipality of Cadaqués, sheltered from the sea by a small island that became a recurring image in the painting of Salvador Dalí. The artist made his home here from 1930 until the death of his wife Gala in 1982, and himself designed the house where he lived, today turned into a museum. Dalí devised a system of mirrors so that the light of dawn would enter his bedroom directly, and went so far as to say that the sun rose over his bed earlier than anywhere else in Spain. Its calm waters, also protected from the tramontane wind, make the cove a secluded corner of Cap de Creus.
Nature
The Illa de Portlligat closes off, facing Cadaqués (Alt Empordà), the bay of Portlligat, visible from Dalí's house-museum, within the Cap de Creus Natural Park. With 8.81 hectares and a maximum height of nearly 19 metres, it is the second largest island on the Costa Brava after Meda Gran, separated from the mainland by a channel about 30 metres wide that can be waded across on foot. Bought in 1962 to build a summer house that came to host Dalí, Kirk Douglas and Yul Brynner, it passed through several owners with development projects until, in 1995, the Diputación de Girona acquired it to protect it; the house, later occupied by squatters, was demolished, and since 2009 the invasive plants that covered much of its surface have been removed.
Nature
The Illa de sa Encalladora, on Cap de Creus (Cadaqués, Alt Empordà), is the second largest island in Catalonia, separated from the coast by a small isthmus. It is about six hundred metres long and has a surface area of 5.5 hectares, with a maximum altitude of under 35 metres; its terrain is rocky, made up of schist and pegmatite. It is home to a freshwater pond and a notable halophile flora, with sea fennel, sea purslane and several species of limonium. It forms part of the Cap de Creus Natural Park, declared in 1998, and is protected as a strict nature reserve, separated from the mainland by the Sa Claveguera channel, about fifty metres wide, which shelters it from the north winds.
Nature
An islet located 705 metres east of Cap de Creus, in the municipality of Cadaqués, also known as la Rata: it is the easternmost point of the whole of Catalan territory. With a surface area of barely 0.7 hectares, washed by the Mediterranean, it forms part of the Cap de Creus land-and-sea natural park, under whose protection it lies.
Nature
A lighthouse located at the southern end of the bay of Cadaqués, on the Cala Nans headland, at the end of a coastal path among granite rocks and secluded beaches such as sa Sabolla. It was designed in 1847, although it was not built until years later, and was inaugurated in 1864, with a light raised 35.50 metres above the sea and an initial range of 10 miles, maintained after a modernisation in 1926. Automatic since the 1960s, with no resident staff, the lighthouse is currently undergoing restoration of its building.
Nature
A small urban beach in Cadaqués, in the Port Alguer neighbourhood, near the Platja des Portal and the Platja Gran, in the heart of the bay. Facing southeast, it measures 56.5 metres long by an average width of 19.4, and is made up of stones and coarse, dark-coloured sand on which fishing boats are always drawn up. It is one of the most picturesque corners of Cadaqués, surrounded by white houses, some with porches, and overlooked by the nearby church of Santa Maria; it became famous after appearing recreated in a 1924 painting by Salvador Dalí. It is flanked by the Riba Pitxot, where stands the monument to the Lídia de Cadaqués, a work by Ramon Moscardó, which looks toward another similar sculpture on the other side of the bay.
Nature
Platja de sa Sabolla is a small natural cove in the municipality of Cadaqués, located to the south of the bay, near the Cala Nans lighthouse, within the Cap de Creus Natural Park. It is barely 50 metres long and 23 metres wide on average, made up of coarse sand, gravel, pebbles and boulders, and is reached by the coastal path; it is also a beach where nudism is practised. Its name derives from bollar, the bubbles fish make when breathing, betraying their abundance in these waters. In the past mortar was extracted from the area, and a lime kiln once stood there.
Activity
One of the toughest and most spectacular stretches of the coastal path, with constant ups and downs between hidden coves and the Bay of Roses.
Activity
The first stage of the Trans-Pyrenean GR11 starts at the Cap de Creus lighthouse, the easternmost point of the Iberian Peninsula, and reaches Port de la Selva over some 15.60 kilometres, with an ascent of 717 metres and a descent of 699, completed in about 3 hours and 35 minutes of walking. It is classified as a stage for beginners, the easiest of the whole route, and at Port de la Selva it links up with the GR-92 long-distance path.
Activity
A signposted path linking Cadaqués and Portlligat to the Cap de Creus lighthouse, crossing the natural park's landscape of olive groves and dry-stone walls.
Activity
A Monday market beside the Riera de Sant Vicenç stream, with fresh produce and crafts, in one of the most picturesque corners of the Costa Brava.
Activity
Cala Culip is a small bay in the municipality of Cadaqués, within the Cap de Creus nature park, the first cove found heading north of the cape. Its seabed, full of rocky reefs and rich marine biodiversity, holds a veritable graveyard of Phoenician, Greek and Roman shipwreck remains, since the cove acted as a trap during storms; on land lie the beaches of Pescadors and es Gentils, buffeted hard by the tramontana. This landscape inspired Salvador Dalí to paint works such as The Great Masturbator. It is today one of the most sought-after diving spots in the area, accessible from Cadaqués.
Activity
A celebration for the patron saint, Mare de Déu de l'Esperança, in early September, with sardana dancing, giants and fireworks from the Torre des Baluard.
Activity
A popular carnival through the village's cobbled streets, with costumed troupes, fancy dress and the bohemian atmosphere that has always defined Cadaqués.
Nature
The remains of a Roman ship sunk around 75 AD in Cala Culip, discovered in 1984 and excavated until 1988; this was the first complete underwater archaeological excavation carried out in Catalonia by an official institution.
Curiosity
A spot in the Cap de Creus where erosion from the tramontana wind has sculpted the rock into shapes recalling animals, such as the Camel, the Eagle or the Rabbit, a veritable natural theme park of geological pareidolia.
Historical milestone
An Ottoman squadron of some twenty galleys under a lieutenant of Barbarossa stormed, sacked and burned the town in October 1543; many of the captured residents ended up sold in the slave markets of Constantinople.
Food and drink
A seafarers' stew of rockfish with potatoes, tomato, garlic and a picada of almond and hazelnut, born aboard the boats with the fish that did not sell; it is the most characteristic stew of the villages of the Cap de Creus.