Cadaqués
General information
Province     Girona
Comarca     Alt Emporda
Demonym     Cadaquesenc, cadaquesenca
Land Area     15.62 km2
Altitude     23 m AMSL
Population     2.640 (2005)
Density     102,6 cat./km2
Mayor     Joan Borrell i Bassols

Cadaqués is a town in the Alt Emporda comarca, in Girona province, Catalonia, Spain. It is on a bay near the Cap de Creus peninsula, on the Costa Brava of the Mediterranean Sea. It is only a two-and-a-half hour drive from Barcelona, therefore it is very accessible and not only attracts tourists but people who want a second home for weekends and summers. In 2002, Cadaqués had an official population of 2,612, but up to ten times as many people can live in the town during the peak of the summer tourism season.

Cadaqués has a special place in art history. Commanding charcoals, by local artist Mei Fren, of the 19th century Cadaqués beleaguered by a winter tramontanain, can be seen at the Cadaqués museum. Fren was the first modern artist to live in Cadaqués and gave the town many of his works and a marble top table on which he sketched many of its turn of the century fishermen.

Salvador Dalí often visited Cadaqués in his childhood, and later kept a home in Port Lligat, a small village on a bay next to the town. A summer holiday here in 1916, spent with the family of Ramon Pichot is seen as especially important to Dalí's artistic career. Other notable artists, including Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Marcel Duchamp, Antoni Pitxot, Henri-François Rey, Melina Mercouri and Maurice Boitel also spent time here. Cadaqués is mentioned in the story Tramontana by Gabriel García Márquez.

The interesting submarine life of this sleepy fishing village was studied for several years by psychologist Françoise Ardré, long before Cadaqués was discovered and transformed into a tourism destination. On Mondays there is a travelling market in Cadaqués, located near the parking lot. This market has a wide variety of products.