Miramar Palace

The Spanish Queen wanted an English cottage. On a cliff. Between two of the most beautiful beaches in Europe. So she hired an English architect named Selden Wornum to build one, and in eighteen ninety-three, the Miramar Palace was completed. It is a deliberately English-style building -- Neo-Gothic elements, cottage proportions, the kind of architecture you would expect in the Cotswolds, not on the Basque coast. Queen Maria Cristina clearly had a type.

To make room for the palace on this headland between La Concha and Ondarreta beaches, they had to physically relocate a hermitage that was already here. They literally picked up a church and moved it so the Queen could have her view. And what a view it is -- you can see both beaches from the gardens, with Santa Clara island centred perfectly in the bay.

The gardens themselves were designed by Pierre Ducasse, the same landscape architect responsible for the Plaza de Gipuzkoa in the city centre. Ducasse created a miniature English park on this cliff: manicured lawns, winding paths, mature trees providing canopy cover. It feels like a slice of southern England transplanted to northern Spain.

The royal family used Miramar as their summer residence for decades. When the monarchy's grip on power loosened, the palace eventually passed to the city in nineteen seventy-three. Today it hosts summer courses for the University of the Basque Country, which means students attend lectures in what was once a queen's holiday home. There is something deeply satisfying about that. The gardens are open to the public year-round and are genuinely one of the best picnic spots in San Sebastian. Bring food, find a bench, and enjoy a view that once belonged exclusively to royalty.