Museu Pau Casals

Museu Pau Casals Review

The family house of renowned cellist Pau Casals (1876-1973) is on the beach at Sant Salvador, just east of the town of El Vendrell. Casals, who left Spain in self-imposed exile after Franco seized power in 1939, left a museum of his possessions here, including several of his cellos, original music manuscripts, paintings and sculptures. Other exhibits describe the Casals campaign for world peace (Pau, in Catalan, is the word for both Paul and peace), his speech and performance at the inauguration of the United Nations in 1958 (at the age of 95), and his haunting interpretation of El Cant dels Ocells (The Song of the Birds), his homage to his native Catalonia. Across the street, the Auditori Pau Casals holds frequent concerts and, in July and August, a classical music festival.