Don't mention the civil war

When the German graphic artist Adolph Schlute was looking for images of Spain for the cover of a glossy brochure selling holiday apartments on the Costa Brava his mind turned to the most famous Spaniard of the last century, the military dictator "Generalissimo" Francisco Franco.

And so the beaming face of Franco, the man accused of sending tens of thousands of political opponents to the firing squads is, to the fury of most Spaniards, being used to sell the holiday apartments at the Parque Residencial Catalunya in the town of Torroella de Fluvia.

Two thousand brochures have been handed out to Germans thinking of buying their holiday homes in the apartment block known to locals as "German town."

Local authorities have been outraged by the German company's sales techniques.

Catalonia, in particular, likes to paint itself as a region opposed to a dictator who, amongst other things, banned the official use of the Catalan language.

"If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would not have thought it possible," said Carles Paramo, head of the Costa Brava tourist board.

"It is outrageous that such an anachronistic and outdated image, should be used to promote Catalonia," said the Catalonia regional government's head of tourism, Xavier Civit.

The promoters agreed that using Franco's picture had been "an error", but it was too late to get the brochures back.

"We would like to apologise to anybody who had felt offended. It is clearly a case of bad taste," the promoters said.

The company had chosen Mr Schlute because he had spent time on the Costa Brava and was deemed to know Spain well.