Luxeuil-les-Bains

Luxeuil-les-Bains in the Haute-Saône département of the Franche-Comté is one of France's most historically layered thermal cities, where the oligomineral spring water rising through ancient Hercynian granite has been exploited continuously since the Gallic period, through the magnificent Roman thermal baths described by the poet Sidonius Apollinaris in the fifth century, through the Celtic Christian monastery founded by the Irish missionary Saint Columbanus in 590 CE, to the present thermal establishment that welcomes visitors within a thermal tradition spanning twenty-six centuries. The town's extraordinary architectural heritage includes the magnificent pink sandstone abbey church, the Gothic cloister, and the beautifully preserved Renaissance urban fabric that makes Luxeuil one of the finest examples of small-city historical preservation in eastern France, giving the thermal stay here a setting of exceptional cultural depth. The surrounding Vosges du Sud landscape, the Vosges Regional Natural Park, and the traditional artisanal textile industry of the Haute-Saône complete the cultural context of a thermal destination of remarkable historical significance.