Salvador Dalí was born in Figueres, an unremarkable market town in the plain north of Girona, and he spent the last part of his life converting its bombed out municipal theatre into a museum of himself. He is buried under the floor of it. The building is red, studded with what appear to be bread rolls, and topped with a row of enormous white eggs, and the inside is not a gallery of paintings so much as a single enormous work with rooms in it. It is the best reason to take a train out of Barcelona.
The museum
A theatre, not a gallery. The building was gutted by fire in the Civil War and Dalí rebuilt it as one continuous piece.
The central courtyard, open to the sky, with a car in the middle of it and rain falling inside the car.
The Mae West room, a portrait that only assembles itself when you climb the steps and look through the lens.
The dome, with the stage beneath it and a painted ceiling above.
His grave, in the floor, unmarked except for a slab.
The jewellery collection, in a separate wing, which a great many visitors miss entirely and which is remarkable.
Getting there
High speed train to the outer station in about an hour, with a bus or taxi into the town.
Regional train to the central station in roughly two hours, at a much lower fare, and a five minute walk to the museum.
Check which station your ticket is for, because they are not the same place and the cheap option is the one that drops you at the door.
By car it is a straightforward motorway run of about an hour and a half.
Buses run from Barcelona and take longer than the train for no saving.
The rest of the Dalí triangle
His house at Portlligat, a fishing village on the coast beyond Cadaqués, made out of a row of joined fishermen’s huts, where he actually lived and worked. Tiny group sizes and its own booking.
The castle at Púbol, inland, which he bought for his wife Gala and could only visit by written invitation from her. She is buried there.
Cadaqués itself, a white village on a rocky bay, which is worth the trip for its own sake and is where you would stay.
All three need separate tickets and none of them can sensibly be combined with the others in a day trip from Barcelona.
An overnight on the coast turns the triangle from an impossibility into an easy two days.
Practical notes
Figueres itself is a working town rather than a pretty one, with a large castle on its edge and a decent market. It is not the reason you came.
Lunch is easy to find within a few streets of the museum and is considerably cheaper than Barcelona.
Photography is allowed in most of the museum and the crowd around the famous spots reflects that.
Closing days are usually Monday outside the high season, which has ruined many a day trip.
Girona is on the same line and makes an excellent stop on the way back if you take the regional train.
Where this fits in a Barcelona trip
Figueres is a full day out and it works best on a longer stay, ideally combined with something else on the same line.
For the other great day trip from the city, up a mountain rather than out to the plain, our guide to Montserrat covers the monastery.
For the city an hour closer that pairs perfectly with this one on the same railway, our guide to Girona and its old Jewish quarter covers the stop.
And for the artists’ museums back in Barcelona itself, our guide to the Picasso and Miró museums covers what you can do without a train ticket.
If it is ruins rather than surrealism that pull you out of the city, our Tarragona day trip guide covers the Roman option in the opposite direction.
The short version
Book the museum slot first and the train second, and take the regional service to the central station if you would rather save money than an hour. Give the museum a slow two to three hours, queue for the viewing platforms rather than walking past them, and do not leave without the jewellery wing. Check the Monday closing. And if you want the house on the coast as well, stay a night up there instead of trying to do both from Barcelona.
