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an exhibition hall. One house on c/Fonollar contains the
Museu Cau Ferrat
(June–SeptTues–Sat 9.30am–2pm & 4–7pm, Sun 10am–3pm; Oct–MayTues–Sat
9.30am–2pm & 3.30–6.30pm, Sun 10am–3pm; €3.50, combined ticket for all
museums €6.40;
T
938 940 364), the former house and workshop of the artist and
writer
Santiago Rusiñol i Prats
(1861–1931), who moved here in 1891. Sitges
flourished as an important
modernista
centre under his patronage – Rusiñol
organized five
modernista
festivals between 1892 and 1899 – and the house
contains a mixture of his own works and those by contemporaries, as well as
various collected odds and ends, like the decorative ironwork Rusiñol brought
back in bulk from the Pyrenees. Nearby, the
Museu Maricel
(same hours, price
and contact details as Cau Ferrat) contains minor artworks, ranging from medieval
to modern, and maintains an impressive collection of Catalan ceramics and
sculpture. In July and August (usually two evenings a week) the main part of the
mansion itself is open for guided tours, a short concert and drinks – ask at the
tourist office for the current schedule.
The
Museu Romàntic
in the centre of town at c/Sant Gaudenci 1, off
c/Sant Josep (same hours and price as Cau Ferrat;
T
938 942 969), occupies the
stately rooms of Can Llopis, a bourgeois home completed in 1793. Admission
is by guided tour only (every hour, English sometimes spoken) and demon-
strates the lifestyle of a rich Sitges family in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries by displaying a wealth of period furniture and possessions, from divans
to dolls.
Practicalities
Trains
to Sitges leave Passeig de Gràcia or Barcelona Sants stations every
twenty minutes, more frequently at peak times (destination Vilanova or
St Vicenç) and it’s a thirty- to forty-minute ride depending on the service.
There’s also a direct
bus from Barcelona Airport
(Mon–Fri hourly 7.40am–
11.40pm, Sat & Sun every 2–3hr with Mon-Bus,
T
938 937 060,
W
www
.monbus.cat), which takes around thirty minutes. Although the Sitges nightlife
might be legendary, the trains do you no favours, with the last departure back
to Barcelona at around 10.30pm (though they do start again at around 5am).
However, there is an hourly
nightbus
from Passeig deVilafranca by the tourist
office (currently between midnight and 3am) which drops passengers on Ronda
Universitat in Barcelona 50 minutes later. A taxi will cost at least €50.
The main
Oficina de Turisme
at c/Sinia Morera 1 (mid-June to mid-Sept
daily 9am–8pm; mid-Sept to mid-June Mon–Fri 9am–2pm & 4–6.30pm;
T
938
109 340,
W
www.sitgestour.com,
W
www.bestsitges.cat) is behind the Oasis
shopping centre, up Passeig deVilafranca, five minutes’ walk from the station.
Carnival time
Carnival in Sitges (
Carnestoltes
in Catalan; Feb/March) is outrageous, thanks largely
to the strong gay presence. It opens on the so-called Fat Thursday with the arrival of
the Carnival King, following which there’s a full programme of parades, masked balls,
concerts, beach parties and sausage sizzles. The traditional
xatónada
gala dinners
are named for the carnival dish,
xató
, a kind of salt-cod salad, which originates in
Sitges. There’s a children’s procession on Sunday, while Carnival climaxes in Sunday
night’s Debauchery Parade and the even bigger Tuesday-night Extermination Parade,
in which exquisitely dressed drag queens swan about the streets in high heels,
twirling lacy parasols and coyly fanning themselves. Bar doors stand wide open,
bands play, and processions and celebrations go on until dawn.
OUT OF THE CITY
|
Sitges