VISITING

Situated between leafy-green natural parks and swells of forested mountains, Santa Coloma is built over an abundance of natural springs. Just at the edge of town, Sant Salvador Park is a great place to go for a drink of the plentiful spring water. Streaked with dallying streams and an occasional picnic table, the park is a pleasant place to have lunch after downing a few glasses of ice-cold water. People from neighbouring towns, and even from Barcelona, come to the park loaded with large plastic water jugs, which they fill at the park’s aquifer. The water shoots out of a mammoth rock ready to drink: delicious and completely free of charge.

A couple of kilometres before Sant Salvador, a dirt road leads to a one-lane bridge, followed by lines of sculpted trees, gushy fountains and the tip of a white roof that peaks out from behind it all. The majestic Termes Orion balneari (spa) seems to gleam against its verdant backdrop, the Guilleries mountains. This old spa sits on top of medicinal thermal springs with mineral rich waters, believed to increase circulation and aid relaxation. Constructed in 1860, Orion’s classical structure holds court over plentiful gardens and freshly mown laws; its tall sculpted columns and wrap-around porch accentuate its comfort and peacefulness.

The spa’s healing waters were discovered around 1700 by farmers harvesting cáñamo (hemp) in the area. The spa was constructed 160 years later; the therapy system worked by cooling the 42-degree hot spring water and then piping this into individual pools for ailing guests, most of whom came from Barcelona. With such a long history, Orion has seen its good years and bad. From 1936 to 1939, Termes Orion was taken over by the Republic during the Civil War, and used as a hospital for wounded soldiers. It is said that soldiers with amputated limbs were immersed in the thermal pools, which aided in a speedier recovery.

When Domingo Campeny bought Termes Orion for sentimental reasons in 1978, the historic spa had been closed and in ruins for years. As a boy, Campeny had played in the vast gardens surrounding Orion, as his father was the grounds’ gardener. After Campeny purchased the spa, he made it his goal to restore the building and improve the springs. He has re-vamped the extensive grounds and created a bamboo-lined thermal pool surrounded by walls of windows to replace the old, outdated soaking baths of the 1800s. Though historically the balneari focused only on thermal spring water treatments, a new age demand for stress release has prompted Termes Orion to add massage, pedicures, facials and speciality bathing, ranging from hydrating milk soaks to antioxidant purple grape baths.