Stolpersteine Project

Stolpersteine in Figueres are eleven brass "stumbling stones" set into the town's pavement, each one dedicated to a single victim deported by the Nazi regime. They offer one of the most personal forms of Holocaust remembrance you'll find on Catalan streets: instead of a monument or a collective plaque, a specific name lies underfoot, exactly where that person once lived.

What exactly are Stolpersteine?

The German word means "stumbling stone." The project was launched in the early 1990s by German artist Gunter Demnig, who devised small ten-centimetre concrete cubes topped with a brass plate. Each plate is engraved with a victim's name, birth date, and the fate that befell them — deportation, concentration camp, death. A stone is always laid in front of the building where that person last lived freely, before persecution took hold. More than 100,000 have now been placed across Europe, making it the largest decentralized memorial in the world.

Where are the stones in Figueres?

Eleven Stolpersteine were laid in Figueres in October 2020, an initiative of Memorial Democràtic, the Catalan government body dedicated to historical memory. The inaugural ceremony took place in front of the town hall, on plaça de l'Ajuntament, where the first stone was placed — dedicated to Vicenç Gené, a Figueres resident born in 1888 who was deported and died at the Mauthausen concentration camp on 7 December 1940. The remaining stones are scattered across the town, each marking the last known address of the person it honors, so tracking them down doubles as a quiet walk through the historic center.

How do you visit them?

All the stones sit within a few hundred meters of the main square and town hall, an easy walk from the train station or from the area around the Dalí Theatre-Museum. Plan on roughly an hour to find the different stones, and keep your eyes on the ground — the plaques are small and easy to miss among ordinary cobbles. There's no ticket and no set visiting hours: the stones are part of the public street and can be seen at any time, day or night.

Why is this worth seeing?

The Figueres installation is part of a broader effort to commemorate Nazi victims across the Alt Empordà region and Catalonia as a whole, where dozens of similar stones have been laid in recent years. Spain now counts roughly 500 Stolpersteine spread across dozens of towns. Visiting the ones in Figueres isn't just a history lesson — it's a chance to see the town from another angle, a reminder that behind its familiar tourist image lie difficult, personal stories from less than a century ago.

Frequently asked questions

How many Stolpersteine are there in Figueres? Eleven stones were laid in October 2020, each one dedicated to a different person deported under the Nazi regime.

Where was the first stone placed? In front of the town hall, on plaça de l'Ajuntament, honoring Vicenç Gené, who died at the Mauthausen concentration camp.

Do you need a ticket to see them? No — the stones sit in open public space, on the pavement, and can be viewed free of charge at any time.

Who organized the Stolpersteine project? The worldwide project was started by German artist Gunter Demnig in the early 1990s; the installation in Figueres was organized by the Catalan body Memorial Democràtic.