Costa Brava's Hidden Gay History (And Where to Find Its Best Beaches Today)

May 27 2026

by Marc Dedonder

Ask most gay travelers about Spain's LGBTQ+ history, and they'll mention Sitges, or Madrid's Chueca, or Barcelona's Eixample. Almost nobody mentions Costa Brava — and that's a shame, because one stretch of this coastline has a queer history just as real as any of them, built by one man, one bar at a time, under a dictatorship that made it illegal.

The bar that started it all

The story begins modestly. Between 1963 and 1965, as package tourism started reshaping this stretch of the Catalan coast, a bar called Bar Martín opened on Calle Santa Cristina in Lloret de Mar. It was run by Fernando del Valle, a local entertainer known as Fernandito, who performed drag-style lip-sync shows for summer visitors and cooked for construction workers in the off-season. It wasn't founded as a gay bar in any formal sense — but according to research from Lloret de Mar's own municipal archive, it became one of the town's first informal gathering points for gay life, years before anyone involved could have said so publicly.

Josep Valls and the bar that changed everything

The real turning point came after Franco's death in 1975. Franco's death opened the door to a period of greater freedom, and a local businessman named Josep Valls i Puigvert, who had spent years traveling around Europe, came home to Lloret de Mar and put that freedom to use. In 1978, he bought a house on Carrer Santa Teresa and opened his first venue there: La Tortuga Vermella, named after a boat that had belonged to his uncles. A year later, with his partner José Rincón, he gave the place a full, deliberately campy redecoration.

For a while, it was the only venue of its kind for miles. According to the municipal archive's research, La Tortuga was, at that time, the only gay bar operating between Barcelona and the French border — which meant it pulled in far more than local trade. French, British, Italian, Dutch, and German travelers became regulars alongside Catalans from the surrounding province. Valls didn't stop there: he went on to open Bar David, El Incógnito, and La Bubu, plus a guesthouse, Pensión Valls, and had the good instinct to list his venues in the Spartacus International Guide — at the time, the reference publication for gay travelers worldwide. That listing put Lloret de Mar on the same map as Barcelona, Madrid, Sitges, and Torremolinos.

Feria de Abril Marica al Bar La Tortuga del carrer Santa Teresa. 1982 ca. Fons Josep Valls i Puigvert. 

A refuge with a quieter, harder side

Not everyone who walked through La Tortuga's door could be fully open about why they were there. The same archive research notes that many of the men who drank there lived double lives — married to women, raising families, maintaining a public image of respectability that Franco-era Spain demanded, while La Tortuga offered a rare, contained space to be otherwise. It's a detail worth sitting with: this wasn't just a fun bar with a colorful owner. For a lot of its regulars, it was one of the only places in the world where they could exhale.

From La Tortuga to Pride Costa Brava

Decades later, the throughline is direct. Lloret de Mar now runs an official annual Pride Costa Brava, produced with the town's own backing and covered in LGBTQ+ media as far afield as Madrid's Shangay magazine — a level of institutional recognition that would have been unthinkable to the men drinking at Bar Martín in 1964. The same town that quietly hosted Spain's first gay bar network north of Barcelona now markets its LGBTQ+ history as part of its civic identity.

An archive still recovering that history today

This history didn't surface on its own. It's the result of ongoing work by the Servei d'Arxiu Municipal de Lloret de Mar (SAMLM), whose project Els colors dels documents ("The colors of the documents") is dedicated specifically to making Lloret de Mar's LGBTIQ+ history visible — recovering private collections like Josep Valls i Puigvert's own archive, studying and sharing what the town's records hold, and reclaiming memory that was silenced for decades. The project recently gained wider attention through a collaboration between SAMLM, PLURALS (Lloret de Mar's LGBTIQ+ association), and the Fundación Pedro Zerolo around the theme of "sexili" — the experience of LGBTIQ+ people leaving smaller hometowns in search of places where they could live openly — with coverage in Diari de Girona and El Punt Avui.

You can follow the project's ongoing work on SAMLM's Instagram.

Where to find Costa Brava's gay beaches today

The beach side of Costa Brava's reputation is real too, and considerably more visible than its bar history. Lloret de Mar's own coastline, along with nearby stretches in Blanes, Sant Martí d'Empúries, and Sant Pere Pescador, is consistently cited by both locals and travelers as the region's most gay-frequented beaches — a mix of lively, social stretches of sand and quieter, more secluded coves further along the coast path.

For the full, up-to-date rundown of specific beaches across Spain, including this stretch of coastline, see our Spain Gay Beaches Guide. And if you're planning where to stay, gay-friendly accommodation in Lloret de Mar and gay hotels in Lloret de Mar are the best starting points.

(Looking for more of Catalonia beyond Barcelona and Costa Brava? See our related piece, In Catalonia, There Is Not Only Barcelona.)

FAQ: Costa Brava's gay history and beaches

Is Costa Brava gay-friendly?

Yes. Costa Brava, particularly the town of Lloret de Mar, has a documented gay history dating back to the early 1960s, and the region hosts an official annual Pride Costa Brava festival today.

What is the gay history of costa brava?

Lloret de Mar had one of Spain's earliest gay bar scenes outside Barcelona, starting with Bar Martín in the early 1960s and expanding significantly in 1978, when Josep Valls i Puigvert opened La Tortuga, then the only gay bar between Barcelona and the French border. Valls went on to open several more venues and list them in the internationally known Spartacus Guide.

Where are the gay beaches in Costa Brava?

The most commonly cited gay-popular beaches are around Lloret de Mar, Blanes, Sant Martí d'Empúries, and Sant Pere Pescador. See our Spain Gay Beaches Guide for full details.

How is Costa Brava different from Sitges?

Sitges is a single, internationally known gay resort town. Costa Brava is a much longer stretch of coastline made up of several towns, with its gay history concentrated specifically in Lloret de Mar rather than spread evenly across the region.