More than one million people have visited the Dalí Museums in the Catalan towns of Figueres, Cadaqués and Púbol this year

Figueres (ACN) .- The Dalí Museums in Figueres, Cadaqués and Púbol have witnessed one million visitors over the past eight months. The exact figure stands at 1,062,218 sightseers, shared between the four museums. This figure represents an average increase of 9.3% compared to the same period last year. El Castell Gala Dalí in Púbol (Baix Empordà), has seen a 22.12% increase in visitors. The Dalí Joies in Figueres follows with an audience growth of 21.4%. The Teatre-Museu Dalí in Figueres and the Casa Salvador Dalí de Portlligat in Cadaqués have experienced smaller yet decent increases in visitors of 5.5% and 3.05% respectively.

The Dalí Foundation has characterised this information as "very positive" highlighting the fact that these figures were achieved within an economic "global" crisis. Dalí is one of Catalonia's most famous artists, receiving international accolade for his surrealist style paintings, films, sculptures and poetry. All of the museums are located outside of the city of Barcelona, making their record of a million visitors all the more impressive. Figueres, the birth place of Dalí, is situated in the northeast in Alt Empordà; Cadaqués is a small costal town also in the region of Alt Empordà; Púbol is a castle town in Baix Empordà. Tourism is one of Catalonia's most important industries. Although traditionally French nationals have been the most predominant in the area, in a statement, the Dalí foundation emphasised the "sharp increase" in visitors from Russia as a reason for this year's success. The popularity of Dalí within Russia is visible in the recent exhibition of a hundred works of Salvador Dalí, ranging from the 1920s until his final pieces, in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow which opened last week. This is the retrospective display with original works has been created in close cooperation with the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí of Figueres which even loaned some Dalí paintings to the Russian Museum. The exhibition will run until the 13th November.