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.

Banyoles grew up around a monastery originally founded by Benedictines in 812. Follow Carrer Nou, full of stone mansions, to the Monestir de Sant Esteve at the eastern end of town, still the biggest structure in the old town, with a Gothic retablo of 1437 backing the altar and cloisters containing 12-16C tombs of local Abbots. (Often closed but you can call 57 02 24 to visit.) The streets leading back into the center of town are full of ancient buildings, including a 12-14C almshouse, Pia Almoina, with a fine 14C cloister, and now site of the Museu Arqueològic Comarcal (350ptas), with its famous jawbone of a pre-Neanderthal man found near the lake), and a good example of 15C industrial architecture, the dye market, la Llotja del Tint, and the 13C church of Santa Maria dels Turers, one of the earliest example of Catalan Gothic with fine stained-glass windows. The Museu Darder d'Història Natural (300ptas) contains the collection of renowned taxidermist Francesc Darder, and the rooms dedicated to Man are controversial, to say the least, for their bizarre collection of human remains. All streets lead to the central Plaça Major, a lovely tree-lined, arcaded square with several cafés and a Wednesday market that had been held here since the eleventh century.

The café on the corner with kiddy rides in front, el Café de la Plaça, has delicious sandwiches made with especially soft doughy rolls, named xapata. Ask for a sandwich with the cold-cut of your choice and pa amb tomaquet, which means the bread will be rubbed with tomato and doused with virgin olive oil. The lake boasts a whole series of boating options - cruises, row boats and pedal boats- all of which run to several hundred pesetas for an hour of fun on this lake's clean waters. (Banyoles lake is enviornmentally protected, and only boats with electric-powered motors may ply its waters.) Take some bread along to feed the enormous carp and water fowl. There is a grassy esplanade for swimmers and sunbathers and a few wooden docks from where to dive in. From the Municipal Pool, Club Natació de Banyoles, which has its own esplanade, walk a few hundred meters along a footpath going through the park to the north.

Market on Wednesday. Bicycle rentals (good way to see lake) at Top Bici, Lluis Constans 273, and at the El Lac campgrounds. Adventure sports at FangFonda Comas has inexpensive menus at midday. But many of the better local restaurants have closed down or are in decline, and the best meals are to be had out of town. If you do eat in town, go to the locally famous Rancho Grande, also know as Can Xabanet, on Plaça de Carme, or to the fancier Les Cuartre Estaciones on the Passeig de la Farga.. For those of you who think, like me, that taxi drivers always know the best places, there is a really good workman's midday menu to be had at restaurant les Estunes, (972 57 52 54, closed Thursdays) where ruddy farmers and workmen from all over the region pile in for hearty meals at 6 Euros. To get there: heading out of Banyoles on the GE-529 towards Sant Pau and Olot turn left at the fire station and signs for the Dallas Discoteque. Les Estunes is just behind the Disco.

Don't be put off if the workmen stare at you a little at first. Just a smile and a nod and they'll dig back into their grilled lamb chops and you'll soon be part of the family. I've had such good cheap meals here - not to mention my first ever taste of home-made pine-nut liquor! For higher quality meals press on the Sa Llanca in Mieres (see below) or go to Can Roca in Espronellá (see below). Back in town you'll find a café with internet connection at Patagonia/l'Abeurador on the pedestrian street heading down to plaça Major. The owner, Melo, has two terminals and charges about 700 the hour to connect. He is also an avid fan of American Football and loves playing backgammon. Banyoles' Fiesta Mayor de San Martirianois on August 15, fiestas also on October 24-26. Sardanas are danced on Thursday nights in summer at the Plaça Major.

Across the lake from Banyoles is the borough of Porqueres, where the lake is at its deepest (63m). Here the exceptionally elegant Romanesque church of Santa Maria was consecrated in 1182 and has a barrel-vaulted interior, and unusual capitals depicting plant and animal life. The frieze around the façade has various curious symbols inside circles. At the end of the apse is a triumphal arch with ornamented capitals: God, angels, a scene reproducing original sin, Christ, the apostles, the Virgin, etc. Shame about the piped-in music you get with the 100 pesetas illumination fee. Somehow, Mahler's Addagietto just doesn't evoke medieval Christendom. Nearby, horseback riding club Club Hípic Comarca Pla de l'Estany (57 42 00) offers a choice of historic routes through villages on horseback. Further southwest, mountaintop Pujarnol commands a good panorama, and has remains of an old castle, a fine dolmen, and the nearby hermitage of Sant Nicolau, with its ancient oak tree, recently named a natural monument by local authorities.

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, of karstic origin, is an exceptional feature in Catalonia, as it is one of the largest lakes 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 ...