The first name that comes into your head when you lay your eyes on this red castle-like building, topped with giant eggs and stylised Oscar-like statues and studded with plaster-covered croissants, is Dalí. An entirely appropriate final resting place for the master of surrealism, it has assured his immortality. Exhibits within these walls range from enormous installations - like Taxi Plujós (Rainy Taxi), an early Cadillac, surmounted by statues – to the more discreet, such as a tiny mysterious room with a mirrored flamingo.
‘Theatre-museum’ is an apt label for this trip through the incredibly fertile imagination of one of the great showmen of the 20th century. Between 1961 and 1974 Salvador Dalí converted Figueres’ former municipal theatre, ruined by a fire at the end of the civil war in 1939, into the Teatre-Museu Dalí. It’s full of surprises, tricks and illusions, and contains a substantial portion of Dalí’s life’s work, though you won’t find his most famous pieces here: they are scattered around the world.
Even outside, the building aims to surprise, from its entrance watched over by medieval suits of armour balancing baguettes on their heads, to bizarre sculptures outside the entrance on Plaça de Gala i Salvador Dalí, to the pink wall along Pujada del Castell. The Torre Galatea , added in 1983, is where Dalí spent his final years.
Choice exhibits include Taxi Plujós (Rainy Taxi ), composed of an early Cadillac, surmounted by statues. Put a coin in the slot and water washes all over the occupant of the car. The Sala de Peixateries (Fishmongers' Hall) holds a collection of Dalí oils, including the famous Autoretrat Tou amb Tall de Bacon Fregit (Soft Self-Portrait with Fried Bacon ) and Retrat de Picasso (Portrait of Picasso ). Beneath the former stage of the theatre is the crypt with Dalí’s plain tomb , located at ‘the spiritual centre of Europe’ as Dalí modestly described it.
Gala, Dalí’s wife and lifelong muse, is seen throughout – from the Gala Mirando el Mar Mediterráneo (Gala Looking at the Mediterranean Sea ) on the 2nd level, which also appears to be a portrait of Abraham Lincoln from afar, to the classic Leda Atómica (Atomic Leda ).
After you’ve seen the more notorious pieces, such as climbing the stairs in the famous Mae West Room , see if you can find a turtle with a gold coin balanced on its back, peepholes into a tiny mysterious room with a mirrored flamingo amid fake plants, and Dalí's heavenly reimagining of the Sistine Chapel in the Palace of the Wind Room .
A separate entrance (same ticket and opening times) leads into Dalí Joies , a collection of 37 jewels, designed by Dalí. He designed these on paper (his first commission was in 1941) and the jewellery was made by specialists in New York. Each piece, ranging from the disconcerting Ull del Temps (Eye of Time) through to the Cor Reial (Royal Heart), is unique.
