Banyoles is a small town built on the shores of L’Estany de Banyoles, the largest lake in Catalonia, and hosted the rowing competitions for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.The lake was formed two hundred and fifty thousand years ago by the tectonic activity which created the Pyrenees mountain range. The area has been settled since the Neolithic period, approximately seven thousand years ago, and the town of Banyoles dates back to the ninth century AD.