Village
Banyoles is the capital of the comarca of the Pla de l'Estany, in the province of Girona, situated on the eastern shore of its lake, the largest in Catalonia, at 175 metres above sea level, on the eastern edge of the Transversal Range, between the Costa Brava and the Pyrenees. Its old town preserves the monastery of Sant Esteve. The city was a secondary Olympic rowing venue in 1992 and host of the World Rowing Championships in 2004, and a 2011 study by the University of Oviedo named it the Catalan city with the best quality of life. The climate is Mediterranean, with average annual rainfall of 815 mm and prevailing north-westerly and south-easterly winds.
Monument
The main square of Banyoles, declared Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection), is the heart of the medieval extension known as Vila Nova and has been documented since 1297, when it already served as a market, a function it retains to this day. The arcades surrounding it are formed by 37 irregular stone arches, round or pointed, covered with plastered and painted groin vaults, with some stretches of original timber beams. The buildings enclosing it follow the typical layout of the medieval urban house, with a shop on the ground floor preceded by a porch, living quarters on the first floor and an attic under Arab tiles; over time balconies were added and some roofs were converted into flat terraces.
Monument
The monastery of Sant Esteve de Banyoles, declared Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection), is one of the earliest Benedictine monastic foundations in Catalonia and is regarded as the very cradle of the city of Banyoles, which grew up around it. The present church, with a single nave, side chapels and a triple apse, was begun in 1702 under the direction of Agustí Soriano and completed around 1740 in Neoclassical style, retaining from the earlier building the late Gothic doorway of 1530 and the bell tower, raised in 1692 and topped with a dome in 1743. Inside, the high altar is presided over by the Gothic altarpiece of the Mare de Déu de l'Escala, the work of Joan Antigó between 1437 and 1439, while the chapel of Sant Martirià holds the Gothic reliquary casket containing the saint's relics, dating from 1453.
Monument
The Casa de la Pia Almoina stands on the Plaça de la Font in Banyoles (Gerona) and was the seat of the medieval charitable institution founded in 1307 by Guillermo Reixach to assist the poor, whose income disappeared in the 19th century with the disentailment. It had earlier housed the Consell de Prohoms, the forerunner of the town council, created in 1303, and the town council itself until it moved in 1928. The building, listed as a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection), combines Romanesque and Gothic architecture, with remains that may predate the year 1000, and is notable for its central Gothic gallery and for the Council's Great Hall, which retains traces of the original decoration in red, yellow and black. It is now home to the Regional Archaeological Museum, the Historical Archive and the Centre for Regional Studies.
Monument
A notable stretch of the town walls of Banyoles survives in the Parc de la Muralla, along with others in the streets of Sant Pere, Santa Maria and Canal. The surviving stretch shows old arrow loopholes and rests on a subsoil of travertine; recent archaeological work has uncovered the perimeter and moat of the wall of the monastery of Sant Esteve, with a circular tower belonging to the sacristy, possibly medieval. The park also features two Gothic pavilion-like structures, built of travertine slabs on a hexagonal plan, datable to the late 18th or the 19th century. These stretches were built during the 16th-century restoration of the wall, more as a watch against banditry than as military defence, and are declared a bien cultural de interés nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection).
Monument
A group of twenty house-shaped lake dwellings, built on the eastern and southern shores of the estany de Banyoles between the mid-19th century and 1931, the year the town council banned the construction of new pesqueres (fishing platforms). They began as simple wooden platforms for fishing and storing gear, and were gradually enlarged to hold one or two boats and to allow bathing in the lake. They were declared a bien cultural de interés nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection), as a historic garden, on 15 January 1997. At the same time a network of tree-lined promenades was laid out, in the style of 19th-century French gardens, linking the town with the spa and the lake.
Nature
The estany de Banyoles, in the Pla de l'Estany district (Gerona), is the largest natural lake in Catalonia, of tectonic and karstic origin, formed some 250,000 years ago when the movements that formed the Pyrenees opened up the Empordà fault. It covers 1.18 km², is 2.1 kilometres long and has an average depth of 15 metres, with a maximum of 40, at an altitude of 172 metres. It is fed mainly by groundwater filtering down from the Alta Garrotxa, with only 10% of its inflow coming from surface streams. It is home to the freshwater mussel Unio ravoisieri, found nowhere else on the Iberian Peninsula, and is designated a Ramsar wetland of international importance. In 1992 it hosted the rowing events of the Barcelona Olympic Games.
Curiosity
A Neolithic site on the shore of the Estany de Banyoles, some 7,000 years old, exceptionally well preserved thanks to the damp conditions of the subsoil, with remains of wood and plant fibres rarely found at sites of this age.
Activity
A popular festival in Banyoles in honour of Sant Patllari, patron saint of the town, with the traditional tasting of casserole rice.
Activity
A comarca trade fair in Banyoles, with exhibitors of products and services from the comarca.
Monument
Catalan manor farmhouse of the 13th century situated in Banyoles, included in the Inventory of the Architectural Heritage of Catalonia. It was the birthplace of the Puig de la Bellacasa family, mentioned since the year 1300 among the illustrious people of Banyoles, and stands on a small rise. During the Peninsular War, in 1812, it became Fort Beurmann. Since the year 2000 it has been the seat of the Pla de l'Estany County Council. At the foot of the hill, on the rear façade, stands the fountain of Can Puig, with a wash-house and a water mine; beside the farmhouse runs the Puig de la Bellacasa promenade, dedicated to Lluís Puig de la Bellacasa i Déu, a Barcelona politician and lawyer (1886-1960) and member of the owning family.
Monument
Farmhouse situated at Puigpalter de Dalt, within the municipality of Banyoles, declared a Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection). It is notable for its slender square defence tower, at the south corner, with a gabled roof and an open porch on the ground floor with round arches on ashlar blocks. On the east side a section with round arches is preserved, both on the ground floor and in the upper gallery. The main façade opens with a Gothic window with arabesques above a round-arched entrance doorway formed of large voussoirs, and the complex retains bush-hammered façades.
Activity
The winter patronal festival of Banyoles (Pla de l'Estany), dedicated to Sant Martirià, patron saint of the city, celebrated on the weekend before his feast day, 24 October. It is the city's second annual appointment with the sardana, after the Aplec de Banyoles in July, to the point that it is considered the main sardana festival in Catalonia. The sardana dance gatherings (ballades) are its centrepiece, with highly ritualised activities such as the Competència d'Orquestres, the Competència de Cobles, the Festa de la Música per a Cobla and the Concurs de Colles Sardanistes, organised by the Foment de la Sardana de Banyoles.
Monument
A natural history museum in Banyoles, opened in 1916 from the donation of the collections of taxidermist Francesc Darder; it also includes a section on the hydrogeological phenomenon of the Estany de Banyoles, added after the 2003–2007 refurbishment. Darder, a veterinarian who sold stuffed animals in a shop in Barcelona and was founder and director of the city's zoological park, was a frequent visitor to Banyoles and took an interest in restocking the lake with fish, which led to the creation of the Festa del Peix in 1910. He donated his collections to the municipality on 22 October 1916, and the museum, housed ever since on the plaça dels Estudis, has grown to hold around 20,000 pieces.
Monument
Museum that preserves the palaeontological and archaeological materials of the comarca, also managing the sites of la Draga, the Roman villa of Vilauba and the monastery complex of Sant Esteve. It occupies the building of the Pia Almoina de Banyoles and was founded in 1933, following the finds made a year earlier at the Roman villa of Vilauba. It brings together materials from palaeontological sites up to five million years old and evidence of human occupation from the Lower Palaeolithic, 250,000 years ago, to the 20th century, including the prehistoric collections of Pere Alsius Torrent, from the late 19th century, and of Josep M. Corominas, between 1933 and 1973. Since 1975 it has also incorporated materials from modern excavations, such as the Incarcal site or the Roman kilns of Ermedàs.
Nature
A protected natural area of 1,064 hectares spread across Banyoles, Porqueres and Fontcoberta, listed as a wetland of international importance (RAMSAR) since 2002 and included in the Natura 2000 network.
Historical milestone
The monk Bonitus built, between 812 and 815, beside the Estany de Banyoles, what is considered the first Benedictine monastery in Catalonia; its monks opened the irrigation canals that still drain the plain, and the town grew up around the monastery.
Historical milestone
An arbitration between the abbot and the townspeople granted the town in 1303 a notable degree of municipal self-government, although the jurisdiction remained in the monastery's hands until the disentailments of the 19th century.
Historical milestone
An emergency intervention on the shore of the lake brought to light in 1990 a farming settlement of around 5300 BC preserved under the water, with wooden structures, textiles and seeds exceptional in the whole peninsula.
Historical milestone
The lake hosted the rowing events of the Barcelona Games; the remodeling of the shores and the sporting impetus consolidated a tradition that in 2004 brought the world championship in the discipline to the city.
Food and drink
Chocolate making is one of the historic industrial specialties of the Pla de l'Estany and has given Banyoles workshops devoted to cocoa since the nineteenth century, with turrón, chocolates and artisan bars.