Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres, Spain

© Valerija Polakovska/Shutterstoc

'A theatrical dream'

The work of surrealist artist Salvador Dalí is the stuff of dreams: melting clocks, burning giraffes, weird objects suspended in midair. Gaze at a Dalí and you may find yourself gripped with a strange sense of familiarity, like your subconscious has visited this strange place before. But what if you could literally step into a huge Dalí piece?

This odd, ostentatious building in Dalí's hometown of Figueres, Spain, is exactly that. Fully imagined and designed by the artist himself, the Dalí Theatre-Museum is built on the ruins of the town's former municipal theater, where a precocious 14-year-old Dalí once had his first exhibition. 'The people who come to see it will leave with the sensation of having had a theatrical dream,' said Dalí, and his design delivers. The Theatre-Museum is a labyrinthine guided tour exploring Dalí's artistic growth and his wild ways of thinking—it features 1,500-plus Dalí originals from all stages of his career, as well as collected works by artists who inspired him. Some might even say it houses the specter of the great surrealist: Dalí himself is buried in a crypt below the building.