Cap de Creus is a peninsula and a headland located at the far NE of Catalonia, some 25 km south from the French border. The nearest town is Figueres, capital of the Alt Empordà and birthplace of Salvador Dalí. Cap de Creus is the easternmost point of mainland Catalonia and therefore of Spain and the Iberian Peninsula.
Presently the area is a Natural Park.
The peninsula has a surface of 190 square kilometres of an extraordinary landscape value; a windbeaten very rocky dry region, with almost no trees, in contrast with a seaside rich in minuscule creeks of deep blue sea to anchor. Mountains are the eastern foothills of the Pyrenees, the natural border between France and Spain. The region is frequently swept by awful north wind "tramontana" (beyond mountains) which has caused many naval disasters. Cadaqués is the most well known village, home of artists and writers, with sophisticated atmosphere, near Port Lligat where Dalí built his home in a paradise small bay (Dali depicted the peninsular in his painting The Persistence of Memory). El Port de la Selva, with a little fishing harbour is less exploited, with good gastronomic recourses and pleasant terraces.
Sant Pere de Rodes stands out at 500 m of altitude, with views of the Cap and the Pyrenees. It is an 11th-century monastery whose first structures date from about 750 AD.
One legend tells that the Cap de Creus was hewn by Hercules.
Famous quotes containing the word cap:
“In time your relatives will come to accept the idea that a career is as important to you as your family. Of course, in time the polar ice cap will melt.”
—Barbara Dale (b. 1940)