Figueres

The name Figueres comes from Ficaris, and the town grew from a small settlement around the church of Sant Pere; in the 13th century it was a village of perhaps 100 people. In 1267 King James I of Aragon made it a royal town with its own charter, a weekly market and an annual fair. Four years later Count Ponç IV of Empúries, whose capital was at nearby Castelló d'Empúries, set it on fire. In 1269 the future King Peter the Great encouraged Jewish families to settle there, and a small Jewish quarter survives from the community that lived in the town until the expulsion of 1492.

The decisive change came in the 18th century, when the hill above the town was chosen for Sant Ferran Castle, begun in 1753. Figueres became the fortress's supply base and grew quickly, spreading beyond its medieval walls. It changed hands repeatedly in wars with France: surrendered in 1794 and regained in 1795, then taken by Napoleon's forces in 1808, recaptured in 1811 and lost again the same year. In the 19th century the stream through the town was covered over to make the Rambla, and the railway arrived in 1877.

During the Civil War the town stayed loyal to the Republic and was one of the most heavily bombed in Catalonia, above all in early 1939, when thousands of refugees passed through on their way into exile; the Republican government held its last meeting in the castle's dungeons on 1 February 1939. Figueres recovered from the late 1950s on tourism, and from the 1960s Dalí turned the ruined municipal theatre into his museum.

Figueres is Dalí's town. The painter was born there in 1904, returned to turn the burned-out theatre into a museum he called a great surrealist object, lived in it from 1984 and was buried beneath its stage in 1989. The museum ranks among the most visited in Spain, and the town plays along: a distorted portrait of Dalí, corrected by a convex mirror, greets visitors at the foot of the Rambla, and shops sell surrealist souvenirs. The town's other famous son is Narcís Monturiol, the 19th-century inventor of the first successful machine-powered submarine, whose monument stands on the Rambla; the singer Mónica Naranjo and the motorcycle racer Maverick Viñales were also born here.

Catalan identity is strong. The local speech is Northern Catalan, with a French influence from across the border, and older people sometimes mix Catalan into their Spanish. The year turns on the Festa Major de la Santa Creu in early May, the town's main festival and fair since 1419, and on summer music: the Festival Acústica fills the squares in late August, and nearby Peralada has held an international music festival focused on opera since 1987. Evenings out mean a terrace in Plaça de les Patates or a bar in Plaça del Sol.

About 50,000 people lived in Figueres in 2025, making it the capital and main town of the Alt Empordà, a county of farms, wine villages and coastal resorts. The town grew steadily through the 20th century, from about 10,700 people in 1900 to some 28,000 in 1975, and has kept growing since, most quickly in the first decade of this century.

Tourism has been the backbone of the economy since the late 1950s, and the Dalí museum brings a steady flow of day visitors from the coast and from Barcelona. Figueres is also the county's market and shopping town: people from across the Alt Empordà come in for the Thursday market, and shoppers from southern France cross the border for lower prices. The high-speed line to Barcelona and France, opened in stages from 2010, has brought both cities within an hour or so.

Daily life follows the Catalan rhythm, with shops closing in the early afternoon, lunch from about half past one and the squares filling in the evening. Locals walk or run the circuit around the castle walls, and the tramuntana wind shapes the day on its strongest days.

Figueres eats the food of Catalonia and of the Empordà plain. Pa amb tomàquet — bread rubbed with fresh tomato, seasoned with olive oil and salt — comes with most meals, often topped with cured ham or cheese. Botifarra, a pork sausage and one of the most important foods of Catalan cooking, is served grilled, and fuet, a thin dry-cured pork sausage with a white mould coat, is the everyday snack. Catalan cooks like to pair meat and seafood in mar i muntanya, "sea and mountain", dishes such as chicken with lobster or crayfish.

For dessert there is crema catalana, a custard flavoured with lemon zest or cinnamon under a layer of caramelised sugar. During Lent, bunyols de l'Empordà, the county's fried pastries, are eaten on Wednesdays and Fridays.

The Empordà is one of Catalonia's wine regions, stretching from Figueres north to the French border, and it is known for reds, whites and a sweet Moscatell. Wineries around Peralada and other villages of the plain can be visited by car. In town, the Thursday market and the bars of Plaça de les Patates and Plaça del Sol are the places to see what locals eat and drink.