Bex-les-Bains – Hot Springs

Original poster from the period shortly after World War I, commissioned by the tourism association of the municipality located in the Chablais region of Vaud to raise awareness of the area in the United Kingdom and to halt the decline of the local tourism industry—which had centered on the healing springs and thermal baths—after a highly successful century. While during the Belle Époque celebrities such as Sissi, Nietzsche, and Victor Hugo used the salt baths—the spring water was said to have helped with more than 50 ailments—the municipality could no longer afford the infrastructure investments required to meet the growing demands of its international clientele.

Did the Swiss Federal Railways believe in the turnaround? In any case, they didn’t miss the opportunity to promote themselves as well, riding on the coattails of the trend, as evidenced by the S. F. R. (Swiss Federal Railways) over the Dents du Midi.

Why, however, the municipality chose to promote its healing springs specifically through the Duin Tower or the ruins of Bex Castle—which, at the entrance to the Saint-Maurice Gorge, controlled access to the Valais—remains a mystery.

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Bex Spa