Approaching the dogleg town of Pubol on a cool, gray morning.
House-Museum Gala-Dali Castle in Pubol
Salvador Dali had long promised Gala, his wife and muse, that he would buy her a castle some day. Late in her life, he did. It became her refuge (and sometimes a meeting place for her and her lovers) from 1971 until her death in 1980.
In a special edition of Vogue magazine published in 1971, Dali explained that he took Gala to Pubol blindfolded, removing it only when they stood before the castle, which he then offered her as a gift. He wrote:
"Gala took my hand and all of a sudden said 'I accept Pubol castle but only on one condition - you may only visit me at the castle with a written invitation.' This condition specially flattered my masochistic tendencies and enthused me - Gala became the impregnable fortress she never stopped being. Intimacy and, above all, familiarities abate all passions. Sentimental rigour and distance, as seen in neurotic courtly love, increase it."
Approaching the dogleg town of Pubol on a cool, gray morning.
The serene cobblestone street of Pubol's medieval town.
The castle's large formal gardens include a reflecting pool at the
far end, with classic Greek statuary, enhanced with Dali's quixotic
works - a ceramic monkfish spewing water, flanked by a multi-hued
series of repetitive busts of Richard Wagner.
A Dali elephant with bony legs and ostrich-like feet points the way
to the castle.