I have been a big admirer of Dali’s work for years. I have visited Dali’s museum in St. Petersburg, Florida years ago and Figueres museum have been on my list for years. So, once we decided on girls trip to Barcelona, I started planning on how to visit Dali Theater Museum in Figueres right away. Here are my tips for Visiting Dali Theater Museum. Here is my list of Tips for visiting Dali Theater Museum for the for time visitors.
Where is Dali Theater Museum
The museum located in Figueres, about 20 minutes’ walk from Figueres-Vilafant train station. We stopped by for coffee on the way to the museum and really enjoyed our morning walk.
How to get Figueres
It takes about an hour and a half to get to Figueres from Barcelona by train. I suggest getting your train tickets in advance online.
Read more:
Travel in Europe by Train
Tips for visiting Dali Theater Museum
How to get to Dali Theater Museum from the train station
Once you arrive to Figueres, you can either take a bus to the museum or walk. The bus stop is outside of train station.
Tour of the museum
You don’t need to get a tour from Barcelona. However, taking a museum tour is not a bad idea. There is a lot of history behind every artifact, so you either need to do some reading upfront or take a tour to make the most out of your museum visit.
Tickets and best time to visit the Dali museum
Dali Theater Museum is one of the most popular museum in Spain. So, expect crowds and buy your tickets at least couple of weeks to a month. Book morning tour to avoid crowds especially during the summer.
Get to the museum early.
We took 7 am train to Figueres from Barcelona and get to the museum by 9am, the opening time. First couple of hours were no crowded at all, couple of groups were waiting in the lobby. by 11m the museum was packed. So, plan to get there early.
Walk around the Museum
Explore the museum outside first. Bright red building decorated with large yellow “eggs”, the Museum is visible from far away. The museum was built on a place of old theater that was destroyed during the Spanish Civil war. Dali designed the entire museum, both inside and outside.
Exploring the museum.
If you are exploring the museum on your own, I suggest seeing Gala’s boat, Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea and the room where Mae West Lips Sofa located first. We took our sweet time exploring the second floor first and by the time we got down to see the Gala’ boat, the entire area was just packed. It was several tour groups and a lot of people around it.
Gala’s Boat
Just like Dali himself, the museum is controversial. The first thing we saw when we enter the museum the Cadillac and a yellow “Gala’s boat” decorated with hanging blue condoms that symbolize tears. As many other artifacts, the boat is dedicated to Dali’s wife Gala, who was also his muse and the love of his life. She inspired majority of his work and appears in a lot of his paintings.
The boat went through the major restoration in 2011 when the structure war reinforced and deep cleaned.
Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea.
This painting looked very familiar to me. It was a portrait of Gala that looks like Lincoln from opposite side of the room. Later I learned that Dali created two very similar paintings. I’ve seen one of those paintings before in St. Petersburg, Florida. The painting in Figueres museum looks much more impressive probably because of the set up.
The Mae West Lips Sofa
Once you get to the room, you will just see some random setup that include red sofa, couple of symmetrical paintings, and a clock stand. As you get further and look at the set up from a specific angle, the set up looks like Mae West face.
The rest of the museum.
We spent about three hours exploring the museum and I could have easily spend another 2 or 3 hours there. There’s variety of holograms created by Dali, some of his early years paintings and other artifacts.
And, of course, we stopped by Dali’s burial place also located inside of the museum to admire the famous surrealist again.
Final thoughts.
Designed by the artist himself, Dali Theater museum is a pace like no others. If you are fascinated by Dali’s art lime me, add visiting Dali’s museum to you list of things to do in Barcelona.
Have you been to Dali’s Theater Museum? Do you have any tips for visiting Dali Theater Museum in Figuesres?
