Balneario de Vallfogona de Riucorb

Balneario de Vallfogona de Riucorb is a historic thermal spa in the municipality of Vallfogona de Riucorb in the province of Tarragona in Catalonia, where bicarbonate-rich spring waters filtered through the Mesozoic limestone of the Catalan Pre-coastal range have been used for bathing since the 17th century, a practice recorded in local archives of the period. The spa complex, in operation since the 18th century, is set in the wooded Riucorb valley between the Conca de Barbera wine region and the Urgell plain, in a landscape of dry Catalan garriga (scrubland) and limestone cliffs that has remained largely unchanged since the Baroque era. The Cistercian monastery of Santa Maria de Poblet, 15 kilometres away — the most important Cistercian monastery in Spain, royal necropolis of the Crown of Aragon, and UNESCO World Heritage Site — places Vallfogona in the heart of Catalan medieval spiritual and thermal heritage.