Balneario de Benasque

Balneario de Benasque is a historic thermal spa in the Benasque valley of the Aragonese Pyrenees, Spain, now abandoned but standing at 1,720 meters altitude as a reminder of the nineteenth-century Alpine thermal tourism that briefly flourished in the high mountain valleys of the central Pyrenees, where natural mineral springs were combined with the fashionable mountain health cure of the Belle Époque era. The springs of Benasque emerge from the crystalline schist and granite basement of the Maladeta massif — the roof of the Pyrenees, where Aneto peak at 3,404 meters is the highest point in the range — creating a thermal bathing experience of extraordinary alpine elevation. Though no longer operating, the balneario's ruins evoke the romantic mountain spa culture of the nineteenth century in one of the Pyrenees' most spectacular high-altitude wilderness landscapes.