From La Llana to the fortress of Sant Ferran

Car­rer Magre and Plaça de la Llana are full of pave­ment cafés and restau­rants. They mark a bor­der be­tween the new town and the old city that passes through the un­known Jew­ish quar­ter, which orig­i­nated in the sec­ond half of the 13th cen­tury thanks to Pere d’Aragó’s promise that all Jews set­tling in the city would not have to pay taxes for five years. They were also given a small plot of land to cul­ti­vate. The neigh­bour­hood, which closed at night, ex­pe­ri­enced an age of pros­per­ity with its local butch­ers and bak­eries. It was an iso­lated space, to the point that the houses fac­ing the church had no doors or win­dows.

This can be the start of a route that let’s us get to know a Figueres away from the well-worn cir­cuits pass­ing through the cen­tre, where mu­se­ums bid for our at­ten­tion with churches, tra­di­tional shops and the many fran­chises now tak­ing up the space. The nu­cleus of the city, the most fa­mous part of Figueres, goes from Sant Pere to the Ram­bla, from the Dalí Mu­seum to the Parc Bosc. High­lights in­clude the Gothic parish church with its Baroque façade, the eclec­ti­cism of the mon­u­ments in Plaça Gala i Sal­vador Dalí, whether the one ded­i­cated to Francesc Pu­jols or the three to Jean Louis Ernest Meis­sonier, the lat­ter the work of An­toin Mer­cie, Wolf Vostell’s Tele­vi­sion Obelisk, or the Trib­ute to New­ton con­ceived in the imag­i­na­tion of the no­tary’s son.

It is rec­om­mend­able, fun and il­lus­tra­tive to visit the var­i­ous mu­se­ums, whether sur­real, toy-based or tech­ni­cal, but if vis­i­tors wish to dis­cover the heart­beat of the Em­pordà cap­i­tal, they should look for Car­rer Mon­tu­riol, which has pro­duced the most ge­niuses per square metre – Dalí, Mon­tu­riol and Fages de Cli­ment were all born there – go down to the Ram­bla and dis­cover the mod­ernist legacy, es­sen­tially the work of Josep Aze­mar, with houses like La Cusí, Puig Soler, Salleras, or oth­ers such as the Casa Casel­las by Joan Gomà Cuevas, or the Casa Pagès – in the Nou­cen­tista style – by Josep Duran i Reinals. La Ram­bla is the heart of the city, and next to it is the Jardí the­atre and a sculp­ture in homage to Josep Pla.

For those who enjoy a walk, the best route starts at the old abat­toir, where the tourist of­fice is today, and from there pass the Ram­bla and the Parc Bosc. Then walk up to the cas­tle and after 15 min­utes you will find your­self at the en­trance to the fortress, which bears an in­for­ma­tion plate on the role Saint Fer­ran played in the Span­ish Civil War. From here we can start the re­turn to the fortress and enjoy a splen­did view of Em­pordà, Gar­rotxa and, on clear days, Montseny.