The Beginnings of Tourism on the Costa Brava

Mass Tourism and the Creation of an Imaginary

From the 1950s onward, mass tourism emerged as a genuinely Spanish phenomenon, becoming one of the pillars of the country’s economy. Tourism on the Costa Brava began simultaneously in several places. One of the first large operations was developed by the architect and businessman Josep Maria Bosch i Aymerich: the Cap Sa Sal hotel, which offers one of the best examples of modern gardens in Catalonia, designed by Rubió i Tudurí.

Culture and cinema played a fundamental role in making the Girona coastline famous worldwide. The parties attended by Hollywood stars attracted photojournalists who used the spectacular local landscapes as a backdrop, making them well-known internationally.

Cadaqués

The town of Cadaqués is characterised by its geographical location on the Cap de Creus, with very difficult access and spectacular rocky landscapes. Beginning in the 1950s, when it began to appear in the imaginary created by Salvador Dalí, Cadaqués became an important cultural centre where figures from the artistic avant-garde converged, including Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray and Mary Fugazzola, among others. Influenced by the well-preserved, picturesque town centre, local and international architects such as Lanfranco Bombelli, Peter Harnden, Federico Correa and Alfons Milà, Josep Antoni Coderch and Francesc Barba Corsini began to design a new kind of architecture which, although modern, showed absolute respect for the local vernacular.

Urban Development in the 1960s

Starting in the 1960s, the Costa Brava underwent an intense transformation: the surroundings of its picturesque fishing villages served as a territory for experimentation in which two opposing city models converged: the garden city and collective housing. The urban centres were transformed with an increase in density and vertical growth on the seafront. Alongside the hotels and urban and suburban tourist complexes, the territory surrounding the existing developments was invaded by single-family housing in the mountainous areas and networks of tourist apartment blocks on the flat stretches facing the sea. Some luxury villas were built amid the spectacular landscapes facing the sea.

The First Environmentalists Speak Out

Although it is true that the orography of some stretches of the coast prevents the massive occupation that has occurred in other places further south, at the end of the 1960s the impact on the landscape was very clear. The first environmental groups managed to paralyze large-scale developments as the transition toward democracy began. Despite their actions, the slow occupation of the territory continued until recently, when a moratorium on new construction came into force along the entire coastline of the region of Girona.

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