About six million people live in Catalonia, and twice that many visit every year, flocking to the beaches along the Catalan costas (coasts), the area of Spain that practically invented package tourism. This sounds more ominous that it actually is and there are many unspoiled little seaside spots still to be found, the best being the whitewashed fishing village Cadaqués in the far northern Costa Brava (Rocky Coast), near the French border.
The capital of this region is Girona, an ancient town seeped in history. Art lovers will also be enthralled with Figueres, birthplace of the father of surrealism, Salvador Dalí, and home to his mad museum. To the south, along the Costa Daurada (Golden Coast) the beaches are wider and sandier. Sitges, a fine resort town that has a huge gay following and Tarragona, the UNESCO classified capital of the region, are the two destinations to visit here, the latter for its concentration of Roman vestiges and architecture.
A hugely popular day excursion from Barcelona is to the Benedictine monastery of Montserrat, to the northwest. The serrated outline made by the sierra's steep cliffs led the Catalonians to call it montserrat (saw-toothed mountain). Today it remains the religious center of Catalonia. Thousands of pilgrims annually visit the monastery-complex to see its Black Virgin.
