- How to fall in love with the Costa Brava in 48 hours
- Route through the most charming corners of the Costa Blanca
At the Vila Vella viewpoint, in Tossa del Mar, overlooking Codolar beach, there is a bronze statue of a woman on a platform. She is Ava Gardner, the Hollywood actress who visited this Catalan enclave at the age of 28 accompanied by James Mason and Mario Cabré to shoot the well-known film Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1950). It would be the first time that she would set foot in Spain, but not the last because, before living in Madrid, she fell madly in love with this Catalan municipality.
Bathed by the Mediterranean, Tossa del Mar offers a large number of activities and charming corners to visit. It is not surprising that the actress was won over by this spot since, flanking the main beach is her castle, a walled 12th-century construction that is located in a movie location.
Within that wall is the old town of Tossa del Mar, Vila Vella, an area declared a National Artistic Monument with stone alleys, slopes from which you can stop to see the spectacular views that surround it, flowers that decorate the houses and a Municipal Museum located in what was once the governor’s house. Here two places are essential to follow Ava Gardner’s agenda: Tomás Patisserie (ideal to make a stop and enjoy their sweets) and the Hotel Tonet, where he stayed for several nights.
And outside the city travel area? Less than ten minutes walking from the Tossa Lighthouse, the parish of San Vicente or the Roman Villa of the Ametllersa tourist delight for lovers of history and art both for its monumental heritage and for the good conservation of its mosaics.
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He fell in love with Elizabeth Taylor
Going up to the north and following the entire coast, you come across S’Agaró, a town in Castell-Platja d’Aro where, in addition to Ava Gardner, other celebrities from the star system as Elizabeth Taylor, Katherine Hepburn o Sean Connery and it was also a place of worship for photographers like Slim Aarons.
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In S’Agaró the cast of artists stayed at the La Gavina hotel while they were shooting the film Suddenly last summer. The hotel, which is still open to the public, was born in the 1930s by the Ensesa family and, a few years after its inauguration, it became the first in Spain to form part of the Leading Hotels of the World and in a cultural asset of National Interest according to the Generalitat de Catalunya.
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Although the entire Catalan elite of the time and the most recognized personalities on the international artistic scene passed through La Gavina, the one that originally had only 11 rooms now has 74, a spa, a seawater pool and a series of activities on offer. letter that allow any visitor to delve into the history of the town. Perfume experiences, the hotel’s own boutiques, a tennis court, gastronomy from Girona, archeology sessions and, a few steps away, the beaches of Sant Pol and Sa Conca.
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El Palamós where he was born Cold-blooded
Continuing along the entire coast, the next destination that stands out as a stop to follow this artistic route is Palamós, a fishing and family town of great appeal, above all, for its beaches.
Palamós mixes tradition with avant-garde. In the summer season it is a tourist destination, but long before it was, personalities like Truman Capote spent the summer there. The writer specifically did it for three summers in a row (1960, 1961 and 1963). Before living in two different houses in the summer season, he arrived with 25 suitcases, a cat and a dog at the Trías hotel and, there, he finished his famous novel, Cold-blooded. They say that in this hotel David Niven and Ava Gardner also had a table assigned to them from so many visits.
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In this Catalan town he enjoyed the food at the María de Cadaqués restaurant, spent hours in the bookstore on Calle Mayor, his leisure time belonged to the nights of La Pañoleta and, during the day, he sunbathed on La Cantifa beach.
Beyond Capote’s routine in Palamós, there are countless places of interest in this enclave: the urban beach of Platja Gran de Palamós, the castle of Sant Esteve del Mar, the Iberian settlement of El Castell or its Museum of Fishing , one of the must-see enclave centers to learn about the history of the place from its purest essence.
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From Figueres to Portlligat: the Dalinian route
If there is a characteristic personality of the Costa Brava, one that you think of as soon as you look for the location, this is Salvador Dali. The artist was born in Figueres, north of Girona, and lived in two different residences on Monturiol street: first, in his birthplace (number 20 on the street) and, later, when he was eight years old, number 24. From this Last family residence, from which you can see the Plaza de La Palmera, he painted his first works.
And like Dalí, another of the most important women in our culture lived in Figueres. She was Russian, she lived in Paris and finally ended up on the shores of the Costa Brava in love with the Catalan artist. Gala Dalí, in addition to her partner, was the almost total administrator of the painter’s life, she continuously walked along La Rambla de Figueras with her partner, where he enjoyed the dishes of its restaurants and also the local cafeterias of the place.
To finish Salvador Dalí’s route through Figueres, it is essential to visit the church of Sant Pere, a Gothic construction built on a pre-Romanesque temple in which Dalí was born and where Dalí’s funeral was held.
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In addition to these corners through which the painter passed, today one of the main attractions of Figueres the Dalí Museum, a cultural institution where you can see part of his works and that is today one of the greatest emblems that pay homage to the artist and that allow us to know his history from within.
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It is just as important to visit that museum in Figueras to understand the artist’s work as it is to understand part of his life. Many of his works had a spectacular skyline as a backdrop: Cadaqués, the summer resort where his parents took him for the first time when he was six years oldsettling the whole family in a little house with sea views.
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If thinking of Figueres is synonymous with thinking of Dalí, thinking of Portlligat is even more so. There he was host to other great names, such as Picasso or his friend Luis Buñuel. It was also there that she met Gala, on a visit she herself made with Paul Éluard, who was her husband at the time and also an acquaintance of Dalí.
Because Salvador Dalí liked this location so much that he bought his workshop house in Portlligat, a house without electricity that he bought in 1930 and in which, for more than 40 years, he lived and restored. Inside, which today can be visited: the painter’s workshop (where some of his easels, unfinished works and work tools are still to be found), his library, the rooms and the garden.
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Portlligat is a town that is only eight minutes from the famous location of Cadaqués. Traveling along a curved road from the latter, you reach the place that captivated the painter. He boasted of being the first Spaniard to see the sun rise at every dawn. And it is that his house, despite not having all the comforts that Gala enjoyed before meeting him in Paris, it was an enclave with spectacular views of the coast.
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But beyond seeing the entrails in which the painter stayed, the castle of Púbol is another of the essential stops in the Dalinian triangle (also formed by his house in Portlligat and the museum in Figueres).
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Salvador Dalí gave this castle to his beloved looking for her happiness, because she did not arouse sympathy among the circle closest to the painter, nor, neither, in the town. Seeking to please him as much as possible and making him run away from the villa to a home where no one bothered him, she gave him this impressive construction. From there Gala also wrote and drew and, They say that she only let her partner in with prior invitation.
There isn’t a local from the Costa Brava -especially from Figueres, Cadaqués and Portlligat- who doesn’t know all about Dalí’s journey in the area. The Costa Brava captivates and combines throughout its entire geography everything necessary for any public: nature, sea, leisure and relaxation.
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