Costa Brava Guide

17 km up the freeway from Girona is the lakeside town of Banyoles, site of the 1992 Olympic rowing events. (If you're not in a rush to get to the lake, turn off the freeway at the signs for Palol, with its ruined castle and a fortified precinct, on this attractive alternate route to Banyoles.)

The lake, with a surface of one square km and 8 km perimeter, is unique in the world in that it is fed by the confluence of two subterranean rivers, where 600 liters of water are pumped in per second. Despite some Olympic-related lakeside development, with new hotels and restaurants much in evidence, Banyoles is an attractive place to visit, with a well-kept old town and shaded footpaths around the lake.

Plaça de la Vila - The Plaça de la Vila is one of the most interesting places in Banyoles. Sit at a cafe at the main square and relax. The architecture of the buildings is very interesting, in Catalan it is called plaça porticada. The old facades have archs were the merchants had their places since the ...

Banyoles Sunday Market - Open air market with fresh products of the ...

Cort Art Gallery - The Galeria Cort is la local art gallery located in the Plaça de la Vila. Lovely small garden ...

Archaeological Museum - Archaeological Museum of Banyoles is housed in a Gothic palace, the centre features palaeontology and archaeology collections from different sites in the area. Archaeological Museum is distributed between two buildings. Most defining, the Archaeological and Paleontological Collection -the remains ...

The Lake of Banyoles - The Lake of Banyoles is one of the largest in the Iberian Peninsula and one of the most important natural phenomena in southern Europe. This, along with the fact that it is set in idyllic countryside, has converted it into one of the main attractions of the region. You can carry out all kinds ...