ST. PETERSBURG, FL (January 10, 2011) - As officials from St. Petersburg and Spain gather this week to cut the ribbon on the new Salvador Dali Museum, the City of St. Petersburg will also welcome a new official "Twin City" relationship with Figueres, Spain - birthplace and final resting place for artist Salvador Dali.
At the Thursday, January 13, 2011 meeting of St. Petersburg City Council (3 p.m.), Mayor Bill Foster, joined by Vice Mayor Francesc Canet, Richard Elelman, Deputy Mayor and City Councillor of Culture and the Environment and Joan Antoni Bertran, City Councillor of International Relations from Figueres, Spain, will sign a City Twinning Agreement, creating an official bond between the two cities that share in common the world's leading museums that house Dali's works.
Figueres joins two other world cities that share an official bond with St. Petersburg. This year, the city's Sister City relationship with Takamatsu, Japan celebrates its 50th anniversary, to be commemorated with a visit from Takamatsu in October 2011. Also, St. Petersburg signed a Twin City Agreement with its namesake of St. Petersburg, Russia in 2003 as part of our 100th anniversary as an incorporated city, and St. Petersburg's 300th anniversary. These inter-city relationships are fostered by the city's International Relations Committee.
Figueres, located in Spain's Catalonia region on the northeast border of Spain and France, is a city of nearly 45,000 residents. A city of monuments, medieval walls, and the formidable St. Ferran Castle, Figueres is most known as the birthplace and home of Salvador Dali and the Dali Theatre-Museum. Designed by Dali himself, the museum was built on the ruins of the old municipal theater where Dali opened one of his first exhibitions. In addition to Dali's paintings, the museum houses sculptures, mechanical devices, furniture and even Dali's remains, who is buried in a crypt in the museum's basement.
Officials from the two cities have resolved through the Twin City Agreement "to deepen and consolidate the ties of friendship, mutual respect and cordial understanding between the cities and their respective countries and in favor of world solidarity, and to promote cooperation for cultural, social, sports, educational and economic development."
A delegation from Figueres arrives on the evening of Monday, Jan. 10, and includes Vice Mayor Francesc Canet, Richard Elelman, Deputy Mayor and City Councillor of Culture and the Environment and Joan Antoni Bertran, City Councillor of International Relations. In addition to attending various opening festivities for the Dali Museum, the group will also meet with city and county leaders, visit St. Petersburg College, attend receptions and tour the Chihuly Collection at the Morean Arts Center and the Museum of Fine Arts. After a week of activities in St. Petersburg, the delegation returns to Spain on Friday morning, January 14.