Bex les Bains – Natural Salt Springs

Original Vintage Poster from shortly after World War I, commissioned by the tourist office of the municipality located in the Chablais region in the canton of Vaud to draw attention to itself in the United Kingdom and halt the decline of the local tourism industry centered around the mineral springs and thermal baths after an extremely successful century. While celebrities such as Sissi, Nietzsche, and Victor Hugo still used the salt baths during the Belle Epoque – the spring water was said to help with more than 50 ailments –, the municipality was no longer able to afford the investments in infrastructure that were necessary to meet the increased demands of its international clientele.

Did the Swiss Federal Railways believe in the turnaround? Who knows. In any case, they didn’t miss the opportunity to act as a free rider and advertise themselves, as evidenced as evidenced by the S. F. R. for Swiss Federal Railways over the Dents du Midi.

However, why the municipality chose to promote the healing springs using the tower of Duin and the ruins of Bex Castle – which controlled access to the Valais at the entrance to the Saint-Maurice Gorge – remains a mystery.

maybe of interest as well:

Solbad Bex