Although Dalí is not associated with Barcelona in the same way as Picasso and Miró, who spent their formative years in the Catalan capital, he did cut his artistic teeth there.

He would head for the city to escape the tedium of his home town Figueres and, in later years, ended up with a suite at the city’s Hotel Ritz, which he used for a series of bizarre publicity stunts.

As a teenager Dalí often visited his uncle Rafael, who took him to the Ateneu Barcelona, a theatre that is still active today. Another uncle, Anselm Domènech, who ran a bookshop on la Rambla de Barcelona, helped to develop the young artist’s vocation by giving him art books.

At 17, Dalí showed eight paintings at the Dalmau gallery. He won a prize for his work Mercat (Market). This was the first of a series of shows at the gallery.

Dalí, ever keen to upset contemporary society, later saw his work banned. In 1928 all the Barcelona galleries — including the Dalmau — refused to show Dialogue on the Beach, because it was said to encourage masturbation.

One of Dalí’s favourite hangouts was the fashionable Oro del Rhin (Gold of the Rhine), where he would meet his friend, Federico García Lorca, the poet and playwright. The bar, now closed, was said to have a terrace so big it doubled as a dance floor. The pair would repair to the Hotel Condal (c/Boqueria) to discuss art. Lorca was said to be obsessed with Dalí, who said years later that theirs was a “tragic erotic relationship because it couldn’t be shared”.

In 1935 Dalí held another exhibition in Barcelona, his last show in Spain for 13 years as the increasingly unstable political situation led him to quit the country for the safer climes of the United States.

When he returned in 1948, it was in typically outlandish style. Dalí and Gala drove into Barcelona in the cadillac they brought back with them.

The artist admired animals, dead or alive. He bought stuffed ones and, famously, did a deal to promote an air route between Spain and India; the only payment he asked was an elephant. It was later donated to a Barcelona zoo.

When visiting Barcelona he stayed at the five-star Hotel Ritz, now the Palace, developing a taste for a spacious suite that came with a huge Roman bath. He would hold press conferences there, once leading a horse up the stairs to take part.

Dalí also liked to go to Barcelona’s Liceu opera house (La Rambla) to see performers such as Montserrat Caballé or, alternatively, to a notorious sex cabaret, El Molino (c/Parallel), often with his British companion and muse, Amanda Lear, who was rumoured to be transsexual. She reportedly said Dalí told her to pretend to be a man. The club is under repair but may open next year.

The artist’s favourite eaterie was the Via Veneto restaurant (c/Ganduxer), where he had his own seat. Josep Monje, the owner, says: “Once he rang to tell me he wanted me to serve small birds but said they should fly into the restaurant. We cooked the birds then tied them to a dish with fishing wire. It allowed them to swing as if they were flying. Don Salvador was delighted.”

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