Along the Costa Brava in northern Spain, in the little seaside village of Portlligat, sits the house that became Salvador Dalí’s main residence in 1930. It started off as a small fisherman’s hut. Then Dalí went to work on the structure, renovating it little by little over the next 40 years, creating a living, breathing, labyrinthine home that reflects the artist’s one-of-a-kind aesthetic. Writing about the house, the author Joseph Pla once said:
The decoration of the house is surprising, extraordinary. Perhaps the most exact adjective would be: never-before-seen. I do not believe that there is anything like it, in this country or in any other.… Dalí’s house is completely unexpected.… It contains nothing more than memories, obsessions. The fixed ideas of its owners. There is nothing traditional, nor inherited, nor repeated, nor copied here. All is indecipherable personal mythology.… There are art works (by the painter), Russian things (of Mrs. Gala), stuffed animals, staircases of geological walls going up and down, books (strange for such people), the commonplace and the refined, etc.
For many, it’s a long trip to Portlligat, and only eight people can visit the house at a time. So today we’re featuring a video tour of Dalí’s Spanish home. The interior shots begin around the 1:30 mark. If you love taxidermy, you won’t be wasting your time.
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It’s always interesting to see how someone would never refer to Scotish people as ‘British’ or Scotland as UK, even though they politically belong to the kingdom of UK.
However when it comes to the kingdom of Spain, everyone is Spanish. I’m aware that Catalans also politically belong to Spain — altough for terribly different reasons than Scotland belongs to UK, ie. a violent invasion rather than a peaceful treaty.
It is not false that both Dalí and Josep Pla were politically Spanish citizens, however, since both their works were huge contributions to Catalan culture and they both defended that (although sometimes not evident and using symbolism — remember it was dictatorship times), I believe it would be a bit more appropiate to bother to mention the word “catalan” or “Catalonia” in the article, together with the word “Spanish” and “Spain”, if you want.
Just an observation, I encounter this not so considerate “problem” pretty often.
‘Northern Spain’?! Catalonia!
But why is this video so boring? I really wanted to see what that house looks like, but I almost lost my will to breathe… Videos about interesting people should be interesting too!
Dali, a fab artist, his works never grow old.
How cringingly pathetic of some of my fellow Catalans never to miss the chance, however tangential the issue at hand, to bore and bug the rest of the world with their paranoid parochial whinging about toponyms, demonyms and all that petty jazz. Last time the author of this post checked, Port Lligat was located in Northern Spain. Why should she bother to mention Catalonia? And Dalí was Spanish through and through, an unabashedly supporter of Franco at that.
Turn the new age bs music off. Would much rather hear something from Dali’s record collection playing in the background, or the natural sounds in the house. Or nothing at all. Why the hell does every last documentary like this not understand that music –unless expertly chosen–does anything other than distract and annoy?
Fascinating, beautiful house. I would make another trip to it just to have more time to take it all in. There is a dried flower (golden brown colour) used throughout the house; either hanging from ceilng or situated above, atop a large/tall piece of furniture or crevice in the wall. It’s name was mentioned during the actual tour and I have not remembered it. Any idea of it’s name? If ever one might be in the area of Port Lligat, make sure you make the time to see Dali’s residence.