SALVADOR DALÍ HOUSE MUSEUM
WEBSITE: WWW.SALVADOR-DALI.ORG
LOCATION: PORT LLIGAT, 17488 CADAQUÉS, GIRONA
NEAREST AIRPORTS: GIRONA AIRPORT, 1 HOUR 25 MINUTES DRIVE
He said he was born of an egg. His wife Gala too. Dalí, or Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marquess of Dalí de Púbol to use his full title, was the most important Surrealist painter to emerge from Spain, and perhaps the world, in the 20th century. His superior technical skill coupled with his striking image making have secured him a seat in the Pantheon of great artists.
Highly attuned to his image, everything Dalí did was steeped in drama. Ostentation. Flamboyance. His portraits are instantly recognizable, and not just for the mustache, but also for the outfits and a stare to rival any YouTube lemur. Stripping away some of the bravado, however, reveals a man who was undoubtedly brilliant, but also a devoted and loving husband, and someone who lived as he worked, with honesty and a deep affection for his country. You might not see that in his camembert inspired melting clocks, but you will if you visit Casa Dalí.
Cadaqués, where Casa Dalí is located, is a small, isolated town on the Costa Brava, secluded by the natural mountainous border surrounding it. Reaching Cadaqués is something of a pilgrimage in itself, whether by steeply winding roads or by boat. Neither option is ideal for the travel weary. However, when you do arrive, you will find a sophisticated, bohemian town with excellent restaurants and a buzz of intellectual conversation. It was, and still is, a place favored and often visited by artists of note such as Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Marcel Duchamp and Richard Hamilton. Cadaqués is also mentioned in the story Tramontana by Gabriel García Márquez.
Just beyond the hills of Cadaqués lies a private bay called Portlligat, where Dalí first bought a small fisherman’s house. He slowly acquired the neighboring houses, joining them together to create what is now known as Casa Dalí. He renovated and decorated the house with the aim of living life to the fullest and entertaining his guests in Surreal style. It remains almost exactly as he left it. And leave it he did when, after fifty three years of marriage, his beloved wife Gala died. He was so in love with her that he could not bear the thought of being in the house without her, so he simply never returned.
It is touching to think that he had built a whole existence filled with art, carefully assembled objects, libraries, round rooms, orchards and swimming pools—all of which suddenly became meaningless without Gala. He even abandoned his studio, which he had brilliantly designed so that, when working on a large canvas, he could lower the frame below the floor and continue painting at eye level without needing a ladder. Ingenious indeed.
Wandering through the house is a wonderful way to learn more about the artist and how he lived. It is easy to imagine being at one of his parties, sipping cocktails and swimming in the sea. He would sit on the beach in the morning and boast that he was the Spaniard to receive the first rays of sunlight each day, being at the most eastern point of Spain (not quite true, but we will not hold it against him).
Dalí was not born in Cadaqués, but in Figueres, a forty five minute drive away. The industrious mayor of Figueres approached Dalí before his death to ask its most famous citizen to donate a single work. Dalí responded that he would not give a single work, he would give an entire museum. And so Dalí placed Figueres firmly on the cultural map of Spain. With almost two million visitors a year, it is now the third most visited museum in the country after the Prado and the Reina Sofia. Considering both of those are in Madrid, a city with nearly seven million inhabitants, while Figueres has just under fifty thousand, that is a remarkable achievement.
Now that is Surreal.