About Cadaqués
Cadaqués is a beautiful white Mediterranean town that sites in a bay of the same name in Cap de Creus. Originally it was a small walled village on a hill overlooked by a windswept church, and its only streets were steep paved alleys winding round the hill, paved in the local rastell style.
In the 17th Century, the town expanded out of its walls along the sides of the blue bay towards El Poal and Port Duguer. Cadaqués was uniquely kept under the control of the count of Empúries, unlike its close neighbour Llança which came under the domain of the church. This meant it had a high degree of autonomy and independence and became on of the most important towns in the region.
Cadaqués has always been a rugged and rocky place, not easily accessible from the rest of Catalunya, and the locals of Cadaqués became adept at sea faring. The profits of those locals who made their fortunes overseas are reflected in some of the fine modernist buildings you will see in the town, as well as an enviable collection of art, such as the L´Amistat social club which houses an important collection of paintings of Eliseu Meifrén.
Famously, Cadaqués bacame a favourite haunt of artists like Duchamp, Dalí and Pixtot and this attracted the tourists. The beautiful thing about Cadaqués, is that the local council has been very careful with the local development so that the town retains its charm, even in the busy summer months.
The town´s centre-piece is the church of Santa Maria- built between the 17th and 19th centuries.
Cadaqués even has its own language, a testament to its isolated geography. A dialect of Catalan, the local lingo is called parlat salat, which has some similarities to the Rousillion dialaect over the border in French Catalonia. Cadaqués did not have a connecting road until 1910, which is perhaps the reason for the development of this dialect.