Figueres (Dalí Museum) & Girona

Overview

Includes

Official guide: Up to 10 hours availability.
Transfer from hotel to Sants station by taxi.
Direct entrance tickets to the Dalí Museum
Direct entrance tickets to Girona Cathedral
Tickets in bird and avant Bcn – Figueres – Girona – Bcn

Does not include

Access to other monuments with entrance
Food and beverages.
Languages not specified above have a supplement

To keep in mind

This excursion involves walking a little.
The tour schedule must be adjusted to the train schedules.

Description

The Dalí Theatre-Museum is a museum entirely dedicated to the painter Salvador Dalí. It is the third most visited museum in Spain.

In his will, the artist bequeathed an enormous quantity of works of art to the Spanish State, which were distributed between this museum and the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid. The repertoire exhibited in Figueras has subsequently been enriched with acquisitions made by the Foundation.

The artist personally took care of the museum project, so much so that inside the complex is his last room and his tomb. As the name suggests, the building that houses the museum was a theatre, the Principal, built in 1849 by Josep Roca i Bros. In 1939, during the Spanish Civil War, it was destroyed by the bombardments of the rebellious side, which left only the structure of what had been a beautiful neoclassical construction standing.

The transformation into a museum was carried out by Ramón Guardiola Rovira, an art-loving lawyer who arrived in Figueras in 1960. The mayor found it strange that Figueras had done nothing for his most illustrious son, and invited the artist to give a painting as a gift to the local museum. Dalí replied that he was willing to donate an entire museum and suggested that the city’s theatre, then destroyed and abandoned, should be the venue. This theatre had a particular significance for Dalí, as he had exhibited his first two works there in 1918 on the occasion of a painting exhibition.

Figueres

The current name derives from Ficaris, from the Visigoth period. In 1267 King James I of Aragon granted it privileges and years later Hugo IV, Count of Ampurias, set it on fire.

From the old wall stands the Gorgot tower, integrated into the Dalí Theatre-Museum. In the 19th century Figueras was the driving force behind a renovated sardana by the hand of José Ventura.

During the 19th century it acquired notoriety and strength, was granted the title of city and became a centre of republican and federalist ideas.

During the Spanish Civil War it was loyal to the government of the Second Republic. It was heavily bombarded by the coup army, especially at the end of the campaign in Catalonia, when thousands of refugees crossed the city in the direction of France to go into exile. Among these refugees was the government of the Republic itself, including Azaña or Negrín, the Catalan government and the Basque government. It is worth remembering that it was also the last place where the Republican Courts met.

In the 1950s the recovery of the city began to manifest itself, consolidating itself with the beginning of tourism and development in the 1960s.

Also from Figueras Narciso Monturiol, inventor of the submarine ship ‘Ictineo’, Salvador Dalí, a well-known surrealist painter and singer Mónica Naranjo.

Girona

Gerona is known as the pearl of northern Catalonia for its wealth of heritage and art. Its historic quarter or Barri Vell is delimited in the east by the so-called Paseo de la Muralla, the ring road of the ancient Carolingian walls (ix century) and the lower Middle Ages (xiv and xv centuries). Its monuments include the Call, an old Jewish quarter, one of the best preserved in Spain, as well as the colourful Casas del Oñar, built on the banks of the river and very close to the cathedral, with the widest nave in the world in Gothic style.

In 2016, the city was awarded the European Prize, a distinction awarded annually by the Council of Europe, since 1955, to those municipalities that have made remarkable efforts to promote the ideal of European unity.

The cathedral of Santa María de Girona is located at the highest point of the city; it has the widest Gothic nave in the world, with a total width of 22.98 meters. Its construction began in the xi century in Romanesque style, following in the xiii|XIII century] with Gothic, preserving only the Romanesque cloister of the xii|XII century]] and the tower of the same period dating from 1040; it was finished in the xviii century. It is of cultural interest.

Next to it is the old Episcopal palace, now the seat of the Girona Art Museum.

How to find us?

At the scheduled time the official guide will be waiting at the agreed place.

Itinerary

During the tour the indicated points will be visited. Depending on the timing of the tickets or the meeting point will be designed a personalized tour to optimize the tour

Will I have time off?

The guide will be available to customers

Guide

Discover Catalonia hand in hand with a friendly and efficient guide.

Train

The journeys will be made in fast and comfortable trains of the Renfe company. The company Icono is not responsible for delays or cancellations that these may suffer due to unforeseen events or breakdowns.

Additional Information

Safe and easy booking