The chapel of Sant Baldiri stands on the road from Cadaqués to Portlligat, next to the cemetery. The village's fishermen built it between 1699 and 1702, dedicated to Saints Abdó and Senén, and it took the name of Sant Baldiri when, after El Port de la Selva became independent in 1787, Cadaqués brought that devotion there.
Anyone walking from Cadaqués to Portlligat, to see Dalí's house, passes a whitewashed chapel with a porch and a small bell gable. It is the chapel of Sant Baldiri, and it has a curious history: the village's fishermen paid for it, it was built for two other saints and it ended up inheriting the name of a church that was left in another municipality. This guide tells that story and explains how to get there.
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Where it is
The chapel stands on the road from Cadaqués to Portlligat, next to the cemetery, between the avinguda de Sant Baldiri and the avinguda de Salvador Dalí. Dalí himself, in his autobiography, placed Portlligat a quarter of an hour from Cadaqués, beyond the cemetery, as the village's tourism website notes. In other words, the chapel is halfway along that walk.
It is listed in the Inventari del Patrimoni Arquitectònic de Catalunya under number 17944, and the Cadaqués tourist catalogue includes it among its places of interest as an 18th-century chapel.
The fishermen paid for it
According to the Inventari entry, reproduced on Catalan Wikipedia, the chapel was built, like the parish church and other shrines in the municipality, through the efforts of the fishermen of Cadaqués, by means of the so-called "penes de peix", or fish shares: in 1699 part of the catch from each fishing ground was set aside to build the chapel at Portlligat. Work ended in 1702: that date is carved on the keystone of the doorway arch.
It was not dedicated to Sant Baldiri, but to Saints Abdó and Senén. Tradition says their relics reached Cadaqués after a shipwreck at Portlligat; another version, the one given by Pobles de Catalunya, says the villagers rescued the two saints from the shipwreck. The local version places the shipwreck at Punta des Vailet, near the passage that separates the island of Portlligat from the mainland. Catalan Wikipedia notes that the document cited in support of the legend is apocryphal.
How it came to be called Sant Baldiri
Sant Baldiri was the saint of another, much older church: Sant Baldiri de Taballera, near El Port de la Selva. The Enciclopèdia Catalana records it from the first half of the 10th century as a possession of the monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes. For centuries, the people of Cadaqués went there.
In 1787 El Port de la Selva became an independent municipality, and Taballera fell within its boundaries. According to Catalan Wikipedia, the people of Cadaqués then stopped going to Sant Baldiri de Taballera and brought the devotion to their chapel at Portlligat. The change did not happen overnight: in 1790 the traveller Francisco de Zamora still called it the chapel of Saints Abdon and Sennen in his diary of travels through Catalonia. Today, next to the main altar, there are still two small altars dedicated to them.
What it looks like
It is a simple church in the vernacular style. It has a single nave with a semicircular apse and barrel and groin vaults. At the entrance there is a galilee, a covered porch with a large segmental arch that shelters the round-arched door. On either side of the door are two barred windows, and above the porch, an oculus and a bell gable. The buttresses end in pinnacles topped with terracotta spheres decorated with leaves in relief. The images and furnishings inside are modern. The two barred windows beside the door let you see the altar from outside.
In the cemetery next door is one of the sculptures on the tourist office's list for the village: "Girl", in marble, by the modernista sculptor Josep Llimona.
How to get there
On foot from the centre of Cadaqués, following the road to Portlligat. By car, you arrive on the GI-614, the access road to Cadaqués, and then along the avinguda de Salvador Dalí. The sources consulted give no opening hours for the interior, so the safe plan is to see it from outside, on the way to Portlligat.
Checked
Data checked in October 2026 against: Catalan Wikipedia (Ermita de Sant Baldiri, based on the Inventari del Patrimoni Arquitectònic de Catalunya), Pobles de Catalunya (entry on the chapel), Cooltur (Church of Sant Baldiri of Cadaqués), Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana (Sant Baldiri de Taballera) and the Cadaqués tourist office (visitcadaques.org: Portlligat, sculptures and the tourist catalogue of October 2023).
Quick questions
When was the chapel of Sant Baldiri in Cadaqués built?
Between 1699 and 1702; the date 1702 is carved on the keystone of the doorway arch.
Why is the chapel called Sant Baldiri if it was built for Saints Abdó and Senén?
Because in 1787 El Port de la Selva became an independent municipality with Sant Baldiri de Taballera inside it, and Cadaqués moved that devotion to its chapel at Portlligat.
How do you get to the chapel of Sant Baldiri?
On foot from the centre of Cadaqués, along the road to Portlligat: it is next to the cemetery, halfway along the walk.