ESPAÑA	Spain
Catalunya / Cataluña	Catalonia
Provincia: Girona / Gerona	Girona

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• ru: Кальдас-де-Малавелья

Caldes de Malavella is situated at an elevation of 84 m in the comarca of Selva in Catalonia, about 16 km south of the provincial capital, Girona, and about 73 km northeast of Catalonia's capital, Barcelona. The municipality has a population of about 8,400 (2023).

Human settlements seemed to have existed in this area already in the late Palaeolithic period. However, the first urban nucleus seemed to have originated in the 1st century AD during the Roman period. The thermal springs of this place were already known at this time and thus the town became known as Aquae Voconiae or Aquae Calidae. Remains of the Roman baths of that period are still conserved in the town centre and have been put under monumental protection. During the second half of the 19th century, Caldes gradually became a popular resort and spa town. The first modern bath house was built in 1840, and numerous others were to follow. The procecss of marketing the mineral waters started in about the 1030s.

The Balneari Vichy Catalán [far left, no. 3175, and near left, no. 3919] was established on the initiative of Dr. Modest Furest i Roca who had acquired the spring in 1881. In 1883, a royal order declared the water a public utility. The first bottling plant was establied in 1889 and the trade mark ‘Vichy Catalán’ was registered in 1890. The spa building shown on glass no. 3175 was built in 1900–1901. The main wing in neo-Mudèjar style was designed by the architect Gaietà Buïgas i Monravà and was completed by Manuel Almeda i Esteva.

The Balneari Prats [near left, no. 3403] was originally founded by the Prats family around 1840 when the family began to channel the waters of the Mina spring and established the site of Baños Prats with a clientele of 400 people per year. This way, the transformation into a spa complex continued, until the end of the 19th century and the rise of the finished neoclassical buildings we know today as the Balneari Prats.

The Balneari Soler [near left, no. 4560] opened in 1900 and bottled water from the Mina spring under the name "Fuente Catalunya". The spa rivaled the Prats and Vichy Catalán during the happy years of hydrotherapy at the beginning of the 20th century that the Civil War later interrupted. Thanks to its high capacity, the Soler spa, like the other two Caldes spas, during the 1930s and 1940s was used to house many refugees and war wounded. The Hotel Balneari Soler was demolished in 1975.

[https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caldas_de_Malavella; https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caldes_de_Malavella, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caldes_de_Malavella; http://www.vichycatalan.com/en/historia.html; https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaietà_Buïgas_i_Monravà http://www.balneariprats.com/index.php/en/the-spa/history-balneari-prats; https://estimadaterra.wordpress.com/2020/07/26/historia-del-balneari-soler-de-caldes-de-malavella/]