Cadaqués, in Spain, has been inspiring artists for decades. Just be careful the wind doesn't make you lose your head, writes EOIN BURKE-KENNEDY
THE WIND IS said to exact an unusual psychic toll on people living in a small pocket of northeastern Spain. Known as the Tramontana, the wind’s cold, dry currents gust down from the Pyrenees, bending trees, shifting roof tiles and snapping TV masts. Its arrival in upper Emporda, the northernmost part of Catalonia, is said to make children giddy.
The sudden change in air pressure can cause headaches and bad moods, and its incessant blasting is said to jar the nerves and push depressives to despair. Suicide and murder rates rise during prolonged bouts, and the wind has even been cited in court as a cause of temporary insanity. Anyone considered a little daft in these parts is often referred to as atramuntanat, which in Catalan means “touched by the Tramontana”.
Despite its claims on their sanity, locals insist the wind gives the region a wildness that is invigorating, and its influence on the landscape is ubiquitous. Over millions of years its battering of the coast has carved the shoreline into a series of dramatic cliffscapes and anthropomorphic rock formations. Hence the name Costa Brava, or rugged coast.
It is, however, the strange luminous sunsets, which slope portentously into the horizon prior to the wind’s arrival, that linger most in the memory.
These skies and outcrops recur in the paintings of Salvador Dalí. The artist spent his holidays as a boy in the coastal town of Cadaqués and later kept a home in Port Lligat, a small harbour next to the town. He said once he had been eternally “quenched” by the light and colour of the place.
Although most associated with Dalí, the sleepy fishing village and its network of steep narrow lanes have lured many other artists and intellectuals over the years. Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Henri Matisse, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst and Man Ray all spent time here, as does Antoni Pitxot, and the British pop-art pioneer Richard Hamilton still lives locally for part of the year.
The town’s rich artistic heritage is the inspiration behind Time+Space Cadaqués, an alternative-holiday package dedicated to exploring not just the region but also the art it inspired. The four-day holidays, from Wednesday to Sunday, are hosted by Barbara and Juan Castella at their modern Ses Vistes villa, overlooking Dalí’s house on the little bay of Port Lligat.
The couple, who bought the land several years ago, commissioned the Catalan architect Fernando Torrent to design a villa that would maximise the site’s views of the bay. Constructed of local slate and unobtrusively sunk into the hillside, the luxurious building is a superb example of restrained vernacular architecture – a rarity in the Irish countryside.
Its ultramodern interior of open space and panoramic windows is carefully laid out to exploit light and space. The villa is deceptively large, with eight spacious double bedrooms, several open living spaces and a large deck surrounding an infinity pool that overlooks the bay. The problem is that the villa is so luxurious that it’s hard to shift yourself and go to explore Cadaqués once you’re ensconced.
The situation is compounded by the presence of Paco Pérez, a Michelin-starred chef whom the Castellas have hired. Time+Space wants to create a new brand of high-end arts and gastronomy holidays. Cadaqués is the group’s first venture, and Pérez has been deployed to deliver a Catalonian culinary experience. He is the head chef of the Miramar restaurant in the nearby village of Llançà and the man behind the new Enoteca restaurant in Barcelona’s prestigious Hotel Arts.
Pérez has also worked with Ferran Adrià, the famed head chef of El Bulli, in the nearby municipality of Roses.
With Catalonia being home to several of the world’s other top chefs, Catalan cuisine has never enjoyed more international exposure. Pérez is keen to show its innovation with his signature Vanguardia dishes, which he says “intertwine both gastronomy and visual art”.
He also brings a deft touch to traditional fare, serving delectable versions of Catalan staples, such as suquet (fish stew), paella and crema Catalana. Each course is conscientiously paired with a local wine or cava.
The allure of Cadaqués stems in part from its remoteness, as the town is cut off from the rest of Emporda by a range of coastal hills. The 40-minute drive from Figueres, the main district town, took up to eight hours before an adequate road was constructed, in the last century. This meant the sea was the main route in and out of town.
As a consequence the locals considered themselves quasi- islanders, cut off from the mainland. It used to be said that many of the town’s inhabitants had been to Cuba and the US but never to Figueres.
Several of the exotically coloured buildings that overlook the town’s picturesque rambla were funded by lucrative trips to the West Indies. Locals even speak their own brand of Catalan, known as Salat, exchanging the definite articles “la” and “el” for “sa” and “es”. The dialect is still found on parts of the Balearic Islands, where some of the town’s residents were resettled following King James I’s 13th-century conquest of the islands from the Moors.
The proximity of the French border and the many secluded coves also made the town a refuge for pirates and smugglers in centuries past. The town was famed for its salted fish – Rome was said to be particularly fond of its anchovies – and evading the excise on imports of salt was a profitable activity.
The town’s association with the arts has its origins in the Pitxot family, ancestors of the Catalan painter Antoni Pitxot. The Pitxots, who had a strong artistic tradition and were friendly with the Dalí family, maintained a summer residence in Cadaqués that was once painted by Picasso. It was at the Pitxot house that the young Salvador is said to have discovered modern art.
Dalí’s eccentric egg-roofed house and studio is now one of the town’s main draws. It was turned into a museum in 1997, eight years after the artist’s death; the curators say it has been returned to the way Dalí and his wife, Gala, maintained it.
The painter’s toxic appetite for publicity and his rather silly self-pronouncements tended to overshadow his art in the latter half of his life. But if his importance has waned with the critics, his popular appeal remains strong, and the house, with its mushrooming extensions and labyrinthine network of halls, remains a testament to his invention and industry.
An aged Dalí was controversially burned in a fire while staying at his castle in nearby Púbol in 1984; rumours persist that it was a botched suicide attempt and that he may also have been mistreated during his convalescence. Despite the somewhat tragic end, the image of the moustachioed dandy replete with cape and cane, which he so assiduously cultivated, still endures.
Eoin Burke-Kennedy was a guest of Barbara and Juan Castella and Time+Space Cadaqués(www.timeandspace cadaques.com). The four-day full-board itinerary includes a night at Hotel Arts, in Barcelona, a trip to the Dalí museum in Figueres en route to Cadaqués, classes with a resident artist, a boat trip to Cape de Creus, a 17-course dinner at Miramar and a tour of Casa Dalí. It costs from €2,000 per person, exluding flights
The best of Cadaqués and its surroundings
Dalí Theatre-Museum
Dalí himself inaugurated the project to build this museum on the ruins of the Municipal Theatre of Figueres in 1974; it contains the world’s largest collection of his work. The artist lived in the museum for the final years of his life; he would often wander down and talk to unsuspecting visitors. The range of work on view is a testament to the ease with which Dalí mastered so many styles. The artist is buriedin a crypt at the centre of the museum, where the theatre stage once stood. Gala-Salvador Dalí Square 5, Figueres, 00-34-972-677500, www.salvador-dali.org.
Walking Cadaqués
About eight kilometres east of Cadaqués is the headland of Cap de Creus, the easternmost point of the Iberian peninsula and one of the wildest spots on the Costa Brava. The well-signed trail takes about two hours on foot; you don’t have to do it all, and it is an ideal way to see the beautiful coastline. In 1998 the peninsula and the Verdera mountain range were made Spain’s first coastal reserve. The lighthouse at the cape adjoins a nice restaurant and coffee shop and provides stunning views of the region.
Cafe culture
There’s a strong coffee tradition in Cadaqués; one of the great ways to sample the town is to come down in late afternoon or early evening for a stroll around the narrow streets, then watch the sun go down in one of the seafront bars or cafes. Marcel Duchamp and the US composer John Cage played chess daily in El Meliton, a cafe-bar just off the rambla. Duchamp is said to have regarded the local fishermen as strong opponents. When it gets dark, order a ron cremate, rum flambéed with coffee, on the seafront terrace at Café Marítim.
Wines and cavas
Emporda is credited with being the oldest wine-making region on the Iberian peninsula. Evidence of vine cultivation can be traced back to 500 BC, when the Greeks colonised the sheltered Gulf of Roses. A highlight of this trip was a wine-tasting tour of Castillo Perelada, one of the top wine-makers of the region, renowned for its cavas. Former US president Harry Truman was so taken by its cava rosado on a visit to Spain in the 1950s that he wrote to the vineyard to compliment it. The vineyard also holds the distinction of being the first sparkling-wine producer to be sued by French champagne producers, in the 1960s, over the use of the word champagne on its label.
Modern architecture
Among the jewels of Cadaqués are the dozen or so modernist villas designed by Peter Harnden and Lanfranco Bombelli. The American and the Italian met in Paris after the second World War and formed a life-long collaboration, the fruits of which are dotted across the hillsides behind the town. For anyone with even a passing interest in the building styles of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, these sleek villas stand as a testament to one of the great revolutionary periods of architecture. Moves are afoot to establish a guided tour.
Go there
Aer Lingus (www.aerlingus. com) flies to Barcelona from Dublin, Cork and Belfast. Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) flies to Girona and Reus (both near Barcelona) from Dublin.