Cadaqués is famous above all for Salvador Dalí, who lived and painted at Portlligat from 1930 to 1982, and for the artists who came to the village, such as Picasso, Lorca and Duchamp. Also for spending centuries cut off behind the Pení mountain, which preserved its white houses and salat Catalan, and for Cap de Creus, the easternmost point of the Iberian Peninsula.
Cadaqués is famous above all for Salvador Dalí, who lived and painted at Portlligat from 1930 to 1982, and for the long list of artists who came to the village before and after him. But that makes no sense without the rest: a fishing village that spent centuries cut off behind the Pení mountain, with its white houses and its way of speaking left intact, and next door Cap de Creus, the easternmost point of the Iberian Peninsula. Here is each reason, with a link to the guide that tells it in full.
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Dalí and Portlligat
The best-known reason has a name. According to the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, the painter settled in 1930 in a small fishermen's hut at Portlligat, the neighbouring cove, drawn by the landscape, the light and the isolation of the place. Over some forty years he extended it, hut by hut, and it was his only stable home until 1982, when Gala died and he moved to Púbol castle.
The village tourism website adds a detail that explains why Portlligat still looks like his paintings: Dalí considered it the most beautiful place in the world and protected it, and in 1953 it was declared a picturesque landscape. How to get there, what the house is like and what you see inside are in our guide to Dalí at Portlligat, and which corners of the village appear on his canvases in the one about the landscapes he painted.
Those who came before and after
Dalí was not the first. The history published on the tourism website names the painter Eliseu Meifrèn before him, and among his contemporaries Picasso, Duchamp, Max Ernst, Magritte and Antoni Pitxot; among writers, Paul Éluard and Gala, Federico García Lorca, Eugeni d'Ors and Josep Pla, plus the film-maker Luis Buñuel.
Some left visible traces. On the riba des Poal a plaque marks the house where Picasso spent the summer of 1910, and on Llané beach there is a sculpture by Subirachs dedicated to Lorca. According to Wikipedia in Catalan, Marcel Duchamp spent his summers in the village from 1958 and played chess at the Melitón bar. Each story has its own guide: Meifrèn, Picasso in 1910, Lorca and Duchamp.
A village cut off behind the Pení
The second reason is less showy and explains almost everything. The tourism website recalls that the villagers lived facing the sea, separated from the rest of the Empordà by the Pení mountain. According to Wikipedia in Catalan, until the 19th century, when the present road from Roses was built, you could only arrive by mountain paths or by sea. The tourism office credits the road to the drive of Frederic Rahola, a member of parliament born in the village, and says the telephone, the telegraph, the post and electric light followed it.
That isolation had a price, because the village was at the mercy of pirates such as Barbarossa, who according to the tourism website attacked it in 1543 and destroyed the old church. But it also preserved things. According to Wikipedia in Catalan, Cadaqués is one of the last places in Catalonia where salat Catalan is spoken, the variety with the articles es and sa, which we cover in our guide to parlar salat. And the tourism website concludes that the village's authenticity survives thanks to that geographical isolation. Today's road is still all bends: how to get there is in our guide to arriving and parking.
White houses on slate
The postcard image has its reasons too. The old town is protected as a cultural asset of national interest, and its Wikipedia entry sums up the scene in four elements: grey slate, olive trees and scrub, dry-stone terraces climbing to the ridges and, above all, the white houses. Over everything stands the church of Santa Maria, which the tourism website gives as the highest point of the old town.
The streets keep their rastell, the hand-laid paving of sea stones set in a herringbone pattern so that water drains away and nobody slips. Carrer del Call has the best-preserved stretch, according to the tourism website. We tell it calmly in our guide to the rastell and the white houses.
Cap de Creus, next door
The third reason is the landscape. Cap de Creus, according to Wikipedia in Catalan, is the easternmost point of the Iberian Peninsula, and the cape area belongs to the municipality of Cadaqués. The natural park was created in 1998, and the tourism website presents it as the first land-and-sea park in Catalonia. Its lighthouse, from 1853 and considered the second oldest in Catalonia, now houses the Espai Cap de Creus.
It is also part of Dalí's fame: the tourism website explains that a large rock in Culleró cove inspired The Great Masturbator, and that locals have named the wind-carved rocks after animals, such as the camel or the eagle. Why the rocks look like that is covered in our guide to the cape's geology.
And the sea
Before the painters, Cadaqués was a village of sailors. According to the history on the tourism website, in the 19th century factories opened for anchovies, tuna, olive oil and aguardiente, and when the vineyards disappeared many villagers emigrated to Cuba, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico or New York; those who came back rich built houses that still stand out among the fishermen's homes. From the sixties onwards, tourism replaced fishing and farming. What remains of that trade is in our guide to the fish market and the anchovies.
Checked
Facts checked in October 2026 at: Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí (Casa Salvador Dalí, Portlligat), the Cadaqués tourism website (visitcadaques.org: history, famous people, old town and church, sculptures, museums, nature, Cap de Creus and walking routes) and Wikipedia in Catalan (Cadaqués, Conjunt històric de Cadaqués and Cap de Creus).
Quick questions
When did Dalí live in Cadaqués?
According to the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, he settled in a fishermen's hut at Portlligat in 1930 and it was his only stable home until 1982, when Gala died.
Which other artists spent time in Cadaqués?
The tourism website names Eliseu Meifrèn, Picasso, Duchamp, Max Ernst, Magritte, Lorca, Eugeni d'Ors, Josep Pla and Luis Buñuel, among others. Picasso spent the summer of 1910 here.
Why was Cadaqués so isolated?
The Pení mountain separates it from the rest of the Empordà, and until the 19th century, when the road from Roses was built, you could only arrive by mountain paths or by sea.