A land of film. From Barcelona to the Costa Brava

Barcelona, inland Catalonia and the Costa Brava have been film sets for numerous films. Film is a good excuse to discover wonderful villages, buildings and landscapes that, between sequence and sequence, enable you to enjoy a film trip.

We have to begin by mentioning the largest film set in Catalonia, Barcelona, which has captivated many directors, such as Woody Allen, who chose it for Vicky Cristina Barcelona. The film was shot in places such as the Fundació Miró where, on the terrace, Vicky and Cristina took photos of a sculpture by Miró, Els Quatre Gats, the Plaça de Sant Felip Neri, La Pedrera and the MNAC. Pedro Almodóvar also set a large part of the history of All about my mother in the Catalan capital. The Columbus monument, the modernist Casa Ramos (in the Plaça Lesseps), the Palau de la Música, the Hospital del Mar, the Cementiri de Montjuïc and the Plaça del Duc Medinaceli, are some of the places that can be seen in the film. And the first part of the horror saga REC transformed the building of Rambla Catalunya, 34 into the place where the stars of the movie were trapped, giving rise to one of the most terrifying creations in recent years.

In the interior regions are the settings of one of the most successful Catalan films: Pa negre. This film was shot in Bages, el Berguedà and Osona, in interesting places such as the spectacular Puig de la Balma, the medieval town of Mura where Bruc was also filmed, the Romanesque church of Sant Climent in L'Espunyola and the Serra dels Tossals, with its impressive crags.

In the '50s, the Costa Brava was the set for many American films. In Tossa de Mar, that year, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, starring Ava Gardner, was filmed. Some of the locations included the Platja Gran, the Mar Menuda and the Codolar, and the walled area of the village, La Torre de l'Homenatge and the church of Sant Vicenç. A few kilometres further north is Sant Feliu de Guíxols. There, in 1959, they received Hollywood star Elizabeth Taylor, who shot Suddenly, Last Summer, by Joseph Mankiewicz on the Sant Pol beach. Further north, Begur hosted the filming of the last scene of film in the streets of Vera and Sant Ramon.

Another director who decided on the Costa Brava was Orson Welles. In 1955, at La Taverna del Mar, he filmed Mr. Arkadin, in which the Hostal La Gavina guesthouse also appeared, both establishments in S'Agaró the town of Castell-Platja d'Aro which is between the beaches of Sant Pol and Sa Conca.

The refuge of stars on the Costa Brava

Also the setting for several films such as Mr. Arkadin, by Orson Welles, the coastal town of S'Agaró, in Castell-Platja d'Aro, was one of the places chosen by many film stars, as Robert de Niro, Sean Connery and John Wayne, to enjoy the countryside, gastronomy and culture of the country.