Teatre-Museu Dalí, Figueres

Salvador Dalí designed this museum himself, which tells you everything about the nature of the experience. It’s not a museum in the conventional sense — a white-walled room with works hanging at eye level for quiet contemplation. It’s a total environment, conceived as an artwork in its own right, installed in the shell of a 19th-century municipal theatre that burned down during the Spanish Civil War. The building is topped with a geodesic dome and covered in giant egg sculptures. Inside, the rooms are linked by bizarre spatial transitions and feature large-scale installations as much as conventional paintings.

What to Expect

The ground floor contains the Cadillac Rainy Taxi installation (put a coin in and water pours inside the car), which gives you an immediate sense of what you’re dealing with. Most rooms are dense with objects: paintings, sculptures, optical illusions, trompe l’oeil works, and pieces that change depending on where you stand.

The Mae West Room — arranged as a face when viewed from the correct position on a staircase — is one of the better-known installations and still works as an experience. Dalí’s tomb is in the crypt below the theatre, which visitors can view through a window.

Allow at least 2 hours. The museum is large and the content rewards attention more than most galleries.

Practical Information

The museum is at Plaça de Gala i Salvador Dalí, in central Figueres. Entry costs €16 for adults (€11.50 for students and seniors). Opening hours vary by season: generally 10am-6pm from October to May, 9am-8pm in summer, with some late-night openings in July and August. Book online in advance, particularly in summer — the ticket queues on busy days are long and the timed-entry system means selling out is possible.

The Dalí Theatre-Museum is the main attraction, but the Dalí Jewels Collection in the same building (separate ticket) is worth seeing if jewellery-as-art is of interest.

Getting There

Figueres is on the main train line between Barcelona and the French border. The journey from Barcelona Sants station takes about 55 minutes on the fast train (AVE/Alvia). The museum is a 10-minute walk from Figueres station. By car from Barcelona, it’s about 140km via the AP-7 motorway.

Where to Eat

El Motel (full name: Hotel Empordà), on the main road just outside town, has been a serious restaurant since 1961 and is closely associated with the development of modern Catalan cuisine. The set lunch menu is good value at around €30. In the town centre, the restaurants on and around the Rambla are mostly adequate without being distinctive.

Beyond Figueres

Dalí lived at Portlligat (near Cadaqués, about 30km east), and his house-museum there is the more intimate experience — a rambling collection of rooms extended over decades. Entry requires advance booking. The Castillo de Púbol, the castle Dalí decorated for his wife Gala, is a third point in the Dalí Triangle, about 40km south near La Bisbal d’Empordà.

If you only go to one: the Figueres museum is the most concentrated and distinctive. But if you’re spending a few days in the area, all three together make a coherent strange journey.