Club Med opened at Tudela, on Cap de Creus, in 1962 and closed to the public in 2003; the Spanish Ministry of the Environment bought the estate in 2005 and in March 2009 began taking apart its 443 buildings. Today it is a walking trail past rocks such as the Camell and s'Àliga down to Cala Culip.
Anyone walking through the Tudela area today, near the Cap de Creus lighthouse, sees rocks shaped like a camel or an eagle, coves and a wide path. It is hard to believe that for four decades there was a holiday village here with hundreds of little white houses, a pool and a restaurant. This is the story of how it was built, how it was bought and how it was taken apart.
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A holiday village at the tip of the cape
According to the press dossier the Catalan government published in March 2009, in the early sixties Club Med bought the land at Tudela, between Cap de Creus and Cadaqués, and obtained permission to build a holiday complex. It was designed by the architect Pelai Martínez and Jean Weiler, Club Med's architect. It opened in 1962 with 350 bungalows and kept growing with new buildings until it closed.
The same dossier says that at the time the site had no protection, though its value was already recognised, and that the village was built with particular care for its surroundings. When an inventory was made, the complex added up to 443 buildings: 412 sleeping cells in two sectors, a restaurant, kitchen, infirmary, reception, pool, bar, gardens, a treatment plant and access roads, plus jetties and steps down to the coves.
From the 1998 law to the purchase
The turning point was Law 4/1998 of 12 March on the protection of Cap de Creus, which created the natural park. The park's special plan made the club's activity unsuitable for the site, which also lay inside the integral nature reserve, the strictest level of protection. From the summer of 2003 Club Med closed its doors to the public, though it kept up maintenance and security.
On 23 December 2005 Club Med and the Spanish Ministry of the Environment signed the sale for 4.5 million euros, according to the Catalan government. Between January and September 2007 the public company TRAGSA removed what stood on the public coastal strip: walkways and moorings in the coves. In July 2008 the BOE, Spain's official gazette, published that the restoration project would not go through an environmental impact assessment: its aim was to recover a degraded area and no significant adverse effects were expected.
What was removed and what was kept
The final phase began in March 2009. The project was drawn up by a team led by the studio of landscape architect Martí Franch and by J/T Ardèvol i Associats; the deconstruction was split between the Ministry and the company Gestora de Runes de la Construcció, with an estimated budget of 7,032,361.72 euros shared with the Catalan government. The idea was to dismantle in the reverse order of construction: first empty, then pull down from top to bottom, and finally take out the foundations with small hammers to harm the rock as little as possible.
The dossier estimated some 42,398 cubic metres of rubble and about 3,000 round trips in small lorries. Another part of the job was pulling out the invasive plants from the gardens, above all the ice plant or hottentot fig (Carpobrotus edulis) and gazania, estimated to cover 66 hectares.
Not everything went. The plan kept the main access road, the central volume of the jetty building at Cala Culip as a shelter, the Mas dels Rabassers de Baix farmhouse, the Rabassers dam and some of the stone platforms the sleeping units stood on, turned into viewpoints. It also kept the car park, made smaller.
The awards
In 2012 the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) gave the project an Honor Award in the General Design category. According to the magazine Arquitectura Viva, it also won the Rosa Barba European Landscape Prize at the seventh European Landscape Biennial, and the jury praised a «creative restoration of nature» carried out at low cost, by close to fifty specialists and over a hundred workers.
Dalí and the named rocks
The Catalan Wikipedia notes that Dalí drew on the geology of the area for some of his surrealist works, and places here the rock on the island of Culleró that is said to have inspired The Great Masturbator, from 1929. What Dalí thought of the club is told in our guide to walking to the lighthouse.
The rock names are old. The project's ASLA entry explains that fishermen named the formations after animals to find their way, and that the new route has lecterns that trace their silhouettes. The viewpoints planned by the Catalan government included the Camell at the entrance, the Illa de Portaló, the punta d'en Pamperris and Cala Culip.
What you see on the trail today
The walk starts at the barrier on the lighthouse road and follows the club's old track, closed to traffic. According to the Rutes Pirineus route sheet, which uses the Editorial Alpina map, from the barrier it takes about 8 minutes to es Camell, 30 to s'Àliga and 45 to Cala Culip, passing the viewpoints of Pla de Tudela, the Gran Sala, Illa de Portaló and Pamperris and the cove of Culleró. Along the way, panels show photos of the complex before the demolition.
To reach the barrier, with the road closed in season and the shuttle bus, see how to get to the Cap de Creus lighthouse.
Checked
Facts checked in October 2026 in: the Catalan government press dossier «Restauració ambiental del paratge de Tudela (Club Méditerranée) al Parc Natural de Cap de Creus» (13 March 2009); the BOE of 8 July 2008 (resolution of 5 June 2008); the Cap de Creus Natural Park website (history of protection); ASLA, 2012 awards; Arquitectura Viva (Rosa Barba European Landscape Prize); Catalan Wikipedia (Paratge de Tudela); Rutes Pirineus (Passejada pel Paratge de Tudela).
Quick questions
In what year was the Cap de Creus Club Med demolished?
The final deconstruction phase began in March 2009, after the Spanish Ministry of the Environment bought the estate in December 2005 for 4.5 million euros.
Whose project was the restoration of Tudela?
The project was drawn up by a team led by the studio of landscape architect Martí Franch and by J/T Ardèvol i Associats. In 2012 it received an ASLA Honor Award and the Rosa Barba European Landscape Prize.
Was anything of the Club Med kept?
Yes: the main access road, the central volume of the jetty building at Cala Culip, the Mas dels Rabassers de Baix farmhouse, the Rabassers dam and some stone platforms of the sleeping units, turned into viewpoints.