Cadaqués

The name Cadaqués comes from the Catalan Cap de quers, "cape of rocks". In the Middle Ages its fishermen were subjects of the Counts of Empúries, owing military service only for actions at or from the sea, and the town grew within the walls of an old castle on the rocky hill above the bay, of which one gateway, Es Portal, still stands. Its exposed position brought repeated pirate and corsair raids from the 14th to the 16th century: the town archive was burnt in 1444, and in October 1543 the Ottoman admiral Barbarossa sacked the town and burnt its church. Watchtowers followed, and only after 1714, with the danger past, did houses spread freely beyond the walls along the shore.

Hemmed in by the Pení mountains, Cadaqués lived facing the sea and almost cut off by land until the late 19th century, living from fishing and vines. Phylloxera ruined the vineyards at the end of that century, and in the early 20th century perhaps a third of the village went to Cuba; many returned prosperous and built large houses such as the Casa Blava. A road broke the town's isolation at the start of the 20th century, and the first visitors arrived.

Artists came early. Eliseu Meifrèn settled first; Picasso and André Derain spent the summer of 1910 here, and a holiday with the family of the painter Ramon Pichot in 1916 is seen as decisive for the young Salvador Dalí, whose family had a house on the beach. Dalí lived at Portlligat from 1930 to 1982. Mass tourism arrived in the 1960s, when Catalans and foreigners bought second homes.

Few small towns have hosted so many artists. Marcel Duchamp played chess at the Café Meliton with John Cage, among others, and invited Man Ray, Richard Hamilton and Niki de Saint Phalle; Joan Miró, Federico García Lorca and Melina Mercouri spent time here, and Gabriel García Márquez mentioned the town in his story Tramontana. The writer Josep Pla set several books here, including accounts of the small-time smuggling the isolated village was long known for.

The town keeps a strong local identity. Its Catalan, cadaquesenc, preserves medieval forms: the articles 'sa' and 'es' instead of 'la' and 'el', shared with the Balearic Islands, and words of its own — a rastell is a steep lane paved with upright slate, a llagut a small boat, a grop a black rain cloud. Women once fetched water in green-glazed earthenware jugs called dolls, carried on the head, and such jugs are still seen as decoration.

The International Music Festival, held each August since 1970, runs from classical music to jazz and rock, and the Rosa Leveroni poetry prize has been awarded in the town since 1986.

About 2,900 people lived in Cadaqués in 2025, but in the peak of summer up to ten times as many may be in town, many of them in second homes owned by families from Barcelona and abroad. Tourism is the economy now, though fishing boats are still drawn up on several of the town's beaches.

The year has two rhythms. From June to September the seafront bars are full, parking is scarce and the bay fills with boats; in winter the town is quiet, the population returns to its residents, and the tramuntana sweeps down off the mountains. On Mondays a travelling market sets up near the car park. The Cap de Creus around the town is a natural park, and beyond the last houses the landscape is rocky, dry and almost treeless. At about two and a quarter hours by road from Barcelona, the town is close enough for weekend and summer homes, which shape its property market and its seasons.

Cadaqués eats as a Catalan fishing town, and its fish restaurants are well regarded across the region. Catalan cooking here draws on both sea and land: pa amb tomàquet, bread rubbed with fresh tomato and seasoned with olive oil and salt, comes with most meals, and mar i muntanya, "sea and mountain", dishes combine meat and seafood, such as chicken with lobster. Botifarra, a pork sausage, is one of the most important dishes of Catalan cuisine, and fuet, a thin dry-cured pork sausage with a white coat of edible mould, similar to salami, is the everyday snack.

Crema catalana, a custard flavoured with lemon zest or cinnamon under a crust of caramelised sugar, is the classic dessert. The vineyards that once covered the slopes around the town belong to the Empordà wine region, known for its reds and whites and a sweet Moscatell. A Catalan custom shared with the rest of the Empordà is the eating of bunyols, fried pastries, on Wednesdays and Fridays during Lent.