Culture (the monastery Sant Pere de Rodes, the Dali museum, the Figueres toy museum, the museum of the Emporda, the archaeological site of Empuries, the citadel of Rosas)

The monastery Sant Pere de Rodes

The monastery Sant Pere de Rodes is set on an ancestral site overhanging the Mediterranean Consecrated in 1022, it adopted the Benedictine rule. The first mentions can be read as early as the 9th century, which aroused envy from neighbouring monasteries. Thanks to the protection of Gaufred de Empuries and a multitude of legacies, the monastery increased considerably. In spite of its enrichment, it declined and became prey to many acts of violence (1798), which was in particular due to many battles and epidemics.
In spite of the efforts of the monks to guarantee the prosperity of the monastery, the total disappearance of the Benedictine monks was inevitable in the face of plundering by pirates, bandits and French troops.
The monastery was abandoned. Then, in the 19th and 20th centuries, it underwent a process of collapse and spoliation. Consecrated as a historical and artistic monument in 1930, the first restoration work and archaeological excavations began. It is one of the most visited monuments in Catalonia.

Audiovisual (18 minutes)
Tours around the monastery and guided visits upon reservation.
Monastery Sant Pere de Rodes
17489 El Port de la Selva

The DALI Theatre-Museum

The Dali theatre - museum houses a vast range of the works of Dali justifying his artistic career (1904-1989), from his early experience and his inventions in surrealism to the end of his life. The theatre - museum is Dali’s masterpiece; he imagined it and devised it to enable the visitor to understand his fascinating and extraordinary creations.
Also to be visited, Dali and Gala’s house-museum at Port Lligat (a port adjoining Cadaquès). This is composed of a collection of small fishermen’s houses. Its strange decoration makes the place extravagant and picturesque and the sight of these houses, with their giant eggs on the roofs and in the garden is all the more extraordinary when you go along it on the indented coast of Port Lligat. A must is the surrealist discotheque at Villajuiga (near Rosas) which was designed in respect for Dali’s art by pupils of Dali.
The Castle of Pujol, which was offered to Gala by her husband in 1970, is also a curiosity. The artist had the right to go there only when Gala invited him. She was buried there in 1982, the year of her death. It is 12 kms from Bisbal.

Plaça Gala I Salvador Dali
17600 Figueres

THE CATALONIA TOY MUSEUM

Inaugurated in 1982, the Catalonia toy museum was built in the outbuildings of the former hotel Paris (the former residence of the barons of Terrades-1767) on the Rambla de Figueres.
It houses more than 4,000 items in particular zootropes, mechanical toys, paperboard animals and horses, pocket theatres. The majority of these accessories are illustrated by old photographs of children playing, which enables young visitors to situate the period and understand how they were used.

Hotel Paris
Carrer de Sant Pere
17600 Figueres

The EMPORDA museum

Situated at Figueres on the Rambla, the EMPORDA museum houses a great chronological choice of regional art and architecture, from prehistory to the present day and especially Catalan and Emporada paintings of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Via the works of Pinazo, Sorolla, Nonell, Marti Alsina, Berga I Boix, Casas, Gargallo Gimeno, Mir, Masriera, Sunyer, Marés, Dunyach I Casanova, visitors can follow the evolution of Catalan art from the second half of the 19th century to Art Nouveau and the first Avant-Gardists with paintings by Tapies, Ponç and Cuixart.
The museum also organizes several temporary exhibitions throughout the year.

Rambla, 2
17600 Figueres

THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL REMAINS OF EMPURIES

The archaeological remains of EMPURIES are considered to be the most important in Spain in Greek and Roman colonisation. For lovers of archaeology these vestiges are representative of a significant stage. Not to be missed, the Greek colony of Empuries, created in 600 B.C. by Phoenicians from Marseilles, it contains a wall, a forum and splendid mosaic pavements.
Also worth seeing, the village of Sant Marti d'Empuries, a permanent exhibition of former crafts and trades, within a small fortified village that has been extremely well preserved.

Near Escala

THE CITADEL OF ROSAS

The historical enclosure of Rosas, which was declared a historic monument in 1961, contains remains going back to various times and various periods of occupation of the Region.
The military fortress with its gigantic Sea Gate is an enclosure of more than 130 000 m2. The fortress walls contain important archaeological layers with vestiges of the Greek city of Rhodos, the Hellenist district, the Roman villa and the Novel-Lombard monastery.
A museum houses a highly diversified collection of historical reconstruction and remains.

Av de Rhode
17480 Roses