FIGUERES NEAR BARCELONA

The main claim to fame of Figueres, two hours' drive northwest of Barcelona and 17km (105 miles) from the Franco-Spanish border, is that the great Surrealist painter Salvador Dali was born here in 1904 and gave his first exhibition here when he was just 14. In 1974, he inaugurated his Teatre Museu Dali, in the old municipal theatre, and it remains one of Spain's most visited museums. It is the only museum in Europe dedicated exclusively to his works.

The building, topped with a massive metallic dome and decorated with egg shapes, is original and spectacular in keeping with Dali's powerful personality. Its galleries are housed in a number of enclosed, circular tiers around a central stage and a courtyard containing a 'Rainy Cadillac' and a tower of car tires crowned by a boat and an umbrella. The galleries contain paintings, sculptures, jeweler, drawings and other works from his private collection along with weird and wonderful constructions from different periods of his career, including a bed with fish tails, skeletal figures and even a complete life-sized orchestra. Dali died in Figueres in 1989, leaving his entire estate to the Spanish State. His body lies behind a simple granite slab inside the museum.