Why go
This history explains why neighbouring destinations can feel so different. Compare the retained street pattern and white façades of Cadaqués with purpose-built Empuriabrava, or examine Tossa’s fortified old town beside its beach setting. The buildings and shoreline show the choices behind the region’s tourism landscape.
The full story
Before the late 1950s, tourism infrastructure was limited. Beach holidays expanded rapidly during the Franco period, accompanied by property development. The results varied along a coast whose steep, broken terrain made some places harder to build on than others. That physical constraint helped preserve stretches of shoreline even as larger resorts grew. Cadaqués offers one way to read the older landscape: winding paved streets and white houses retain the form of a fishing village. Artists helped carry its image abroad, while Dalí gradually enlarged his former fisherman’s dwelling at Portlligat into a distinctive home and studio. Tossa de Mar presents another contrast. Its medieval walls and defensive towers remain prominent above a beach destination. These surviving townscapes help explain the Costa Brava’s appeal beyond seaside accommodation, while Empuriabrava’s canals show how thoroughly other places were redesigned for leisure.