As home to the painter Salvador Dali and inspiration for some of his greatest and strangest artistic endeavors, the fishing port of Cadaques on Spain’s Costa Brava is used to the surreal.
However, the latest project involving the northeastern Spanish town has astonished even the cosmopolitan inhabitants of a place that boasts more art galleries per square kilometer than anywhere else in the country.
A Chinese developer has decided to build a replica of the town half-way across the globe in Xiamen Bay, where China looks out toward Taiwan.
Architects from developers China Merchants Zhangzhou visited Cadaques in June, taking measurements, photographing buildings and worrying about whether Chinese fire engines would fit down its tiny streets.
Sources at the company said they had found a spot that was geographically similar to Cadaques, with its gently sloping hills and protected bay.
“Building work will start in September or October,” a spokesman said.
More than 40 hectares of land will be used to build a near replica with a capacity to house some 15,000 Chinese holidaymakers who want to enjoy the Costa Brava experience without having to travel 10,000km.
The Chinese version will not have the sparkling Mediterranean, the madness-inducing Tramontana wind or as many jellyfish as Cadaques, but the promoters say they will try to get as close to possible to the real thing.
“We will recreate the essence of the fishing town and will reproduce the most characteristic elements of the architecture,” one of the architects, Hu Zheng, told the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia.
That will mean copying the narrow streets and the white-painted buildings that look out across the perfect, open-mouthed bay where small, brightly painted fishing craft bob up and down.
The promoters of the Chinese resort have decided they can improve a bit on the original, however, and will be adding an artificial island.
Among other buildings the architects were keen to see were the warren-like collection of fishermen’s cottages in neighboring Portlligat, where Dali lived.
Topped with a giant egg sculpture, this is where the Spanish surrealist painted many of his most famous works — including a portrait of his Russian wife Gala looking out to sea.
It is also where he indulged his fondness for voyeurism, encouraging selected guests to perform sex acts in front of him.
Visitors to the house today are greeted by the same stuffed, wild bear with which Dali tried to frighten away unwanted guests.
The Chinese developers told officials in Cadaques that they also wanted to make art a central part of the new town, with space for galleries and offers to some local Spanish artists to show their work there.
“We like the idea and the way they are treating us,” Cadaques Mayor Joan Borrell said. “We are small, but well-known. If they want to imitate you, then it means you must have got something right.”
Borrell said he hoped the Xiamen version would eventually attract Chinese tourists to the real thing
“As with a work of art, seeing the copy often makes you want to see the original,” he said. “That would be wonderful for Cadaques and for the whole of the Costa Brava.”
This is the second attempt to build a replica of the fishing town somewhere else in the world.
An attempt was made in the Dominican Republic, but Cadaques says it was not consulted and does not recognize it as a genuine imitation.
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