In 1944, during the visit of the painter and garden designer Javier de Winthuysen Losada (Seville, 1874 – Barcelona, 1956), it was considered necessary to build a viewpoint overlooking the lake, on the hill of Sant Martirià.

Javier de Winthuysen himself defined the construction guidelines and chose the location, where he stated: “If I were ever condemned to anything, let it be to die here.” For him, the viewpoint was the “balcony over the lake.”

By September 1946, it had been completed, with only the planting of new trees and improvements to the access paths remaining. At that time, the viewpoint offered a panoramic view of the lake and was regarded as a symbol of the hopes placed in Banyoles’ tourist future. Since its beginnings, it has officially been known as the Lake Viewpoint (or, on some occasions in 1946, the Lake Balcony). Informally and popularly, it has also been referred to as La Miranda or the Sant Martirià Hill Viewpoint.

In the past, people used to say that one could not truly know the lake without visiting the viewpoint.

The renovation of this viewpoint is part of the:

TOURISM SUSTAINABILITY PLAN IN DESTINATION (PSTD)
Banyoles, City of Water
Extraordinary Call 2022
Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan – Funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU

More information about the Tourism Sustainability Plan in Destination (PSTD) Banyoles, City of Water at https://nextdestination.banyoles.cat