6 places that you cannot miss in Caldes de Malavella

Caldes de Malavella is located halfway between the Costa Brava and the Sierra de las Guilleries, the plain of La Selva, rich in contrasts, heritage and tradition. Thus, Caldes de Malavella, is located in a strategic location for communications, and for this reason, it has always been a land of passage and a land of footprints. The trace of all the civilizations that have inhabited our country is present in the villa.

In Caldes you can lose hours and hours touring the hiking trails and the different urban routes to get to know the heritage. And if after long walks you need more relaxation, the town's waters, with renowned healing properties, make it easy to enjoy thermal treatments, from the hot water springs or from the well-known spas.

What can Caldes de Malavella, Villa with Character, offer you?

Guided visits

If all the walks along the routes or through the center of the town are still not enough, you can get to know the town with a local guide. Walks through history for almost two hours under a fun and entertaining guide, getting to know different emblematic places, legends and those details that we love so much and that escape us with just a casual glance

You can enjoy these different routes every Sunday at 11 a.m. (in July and August, at 10 a.m.)

More information: www.visitcaldes.cat/visites-guiades

These are the 6 places that you cannot miss in Caldes de Malavella:

Aquae space

Museographic Center and Tourist Attention Point. It is the first place to go when you arrive at the thermal village.

The AQUAE Space in Caldes de Malavella is an interpretation center where research, didactics and interpretation of Caldes' heritage are combined. A journey through the natural and cultural legacy forged over time by its waters, through nine exhibition spaces.

More information: https://www.visitcaldes.cat/espai-aquae/

Roman Baths and the Puig de Sant Grau

Going to Caldes de Malavella and not visiting the Roman baths is like going to Rome and not visiting the Coliseum. They are the best-preserved Roman remains in the municipality and are part of the Sant Grau thermal building that was built around the year 50 AD on top of a previous spa from the 2nd-1st centuries BC. When you go, think that you are visiting a monument declared a Cultural Asset of National Interest (BCIN)

More information: https://www.visitcaldes.cat/que-fer/termes-romanes/

Camp dels Ninots Paleontological Site

One of the few sites that allow us to reconstruct an entire ecosystem from about 3 million years ago, specifically from the period known as the Upper Pliocene. The uniqueness, diversity and exceptional nature of the materials uncovered up to now have led to the site being declared a Cultural Asset of National Interest (BCIN) by the Generalitat de Catalunya, with the aim of protecting its environment, promoting scientific research and to transmit to society the results obtained.

More information: https://www.visitcaldes.cat/camp-dels-ninots/

Spas and Fountains

The springs of thermal water are a singular element of Caldes, which have defined its character since ancient times. Its streets, squares and gardens are full of heritage elements that reflect a historical legacy forged through the close link between these waters and their villagers: the Roman Baths, the Spas, the modernist houses, the spaces for walks...

Currently, in Caldes de Malavella there are three places where thermal water emerges at an average of 56ºC-60ºC:

• Puig de les Ànimes, within the grounds of Vichy Catalán, where we find the Spa and the bottling plant
• Puig de Sant Grau, where the fountains of San Narciso and Los Hervidores, the Roman Baths and the San Narciso and Imperial bottling plants are located
• Puig de les Moleres, where we find the source of the Mine or Raig d'en Mel, and the Agua Malavella bottling plant. And where is the water channeled from in the Prats Spa?

The recognized properties of thermal water through the thermal baths led to it being bottled so that patients could continue the treatment at home. This would be the embryo of the industrial use of thermal water, which had several promoters and became an economic engine for the population.

More information: https://www.visitcaldes.cat/que-fer/balnearis-i-fonts/

San Mauricio and the Malavella Castle

Caldes de Malavella could not exist without a legend behind its history. A place as fantastic as Caldes, whose origins are lost in time, where the earth has caused miraculous waters to sprout and who knows if they are also of fantastic origin, it could not be otherwise that it also offers us one of the most heard and popular that, according to some voices, could have given the town a last name: the legend of the malavieja.

The legend of the Malavella is located in the magical place of the Castle of the Malavella and the hermitage of San Mauricio, where a feudal lady, bad and old, was defeated to free the population of Caldes from the abusive taxes on the that they were used to it and also the constant disappearance of children from Caldas.

More information: https://www.visitcaldes.cat/agenda/actualitat/proposta-de-passeig-sant-maurici-i-el-castell-de-la-malavella/

Modernist buildings

The architecture of the early 20th century. The thermalism in Caldes de Malavella has given the town its own personality, recognized everywhere through its spa activity. The beginning of the spa phenomenon at the end of the 19th century contributed to the exploitation of the waters and the urban development of the population.

The modernist and noucentista architecture and the eclecticism that we can still observe today is the testimony of a time of splendor and development of the town, in which the bourgeoisie, a new wealthy class emphasized the healing properties of the thermal waters and gave a new value to rural society.

More information:https://www.visitcaldes.cat/que-fer/modernisme/

Source: Caldes de Malavella Town Hall