History

The waters of Fitero have been used for therapeutic purposes since Roman times in the 2nd century BCE.

Thermal waters, a source of life and health, have been emanating from the depths of the Earth since those times, blossoming into two springs that today provide the location for one of the most important spas in Europe.

The hot springs were donated to the Fitero monastery by King Sancho III of Castile in 1157. Centuries later, in 1507 specifically, the springs were sacked and destroyed, although they were rebuilt quickly and run by the married couple Don Pedro Navarro and Doña Ana de San Juan from the late 16th century. 

On 24 June 1600, D. Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, who would become Viceroy and Capitan in New Spain, Archbishop of Mexico and Bishop of Burgo de Osma, was born. Given the importance of the event, in 1728 the Old Baths changed their name to Virrey Palafox, which they have kept up to the present day.

After the turn of the 19th century, in 1805, a building was erected to house the soldiers of the Bourbon cavalry regiment. During the war of independence, until 1813 the building was used by the French troupes as a hospital for their sick and wounded. Afterwards, the building became very run down, so it was decided to rehab it.

With the ecclesiastical confiscations of Mendizábal of 1836, the monks definitively abandoned the monastery and the property was transferred to a private owner.

In 1837, the Spa became the property of D. Juan José Aréjula, from Tudela, who had been the caretaker of the property years before. He bought it for a million and a half reales in credits against the state in 1832, however he returned it to the monks soon after.

 

Just a few years later, in 1845, mining operations were started that confirmed suspicions of another hot springs, around which the New Baths were built. The baths are now the Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer Spa, after the poet from Seville who visited the spa frequently for its thermal healing. He composed two of his most acclaimed legends there, “El Miserere” and “La cueva de la Mora”. The first new building was inaugurated in 1847, although the plans for the large building are from 1868.

A company was created in 1909 that would join together both managers of the Old Baths and New Baths properties.

After some initial paperwork at the end of that year, the union was completed in June 1910 and both spas would be run by a single company, Baños de Fitero S.A.

 

The therapeutic benefits of the waters of the Fitero Spa have attracted the most illustrious figures from every time period. The poet from Seville Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, the noble Don Juan de Palafox, Pope Benedict VX and the famous designer Cristóbal Balenciaga are some of the most distinguished guests. Not for nothing, in 1973 the old and new hotels were renamed “Virrey Palafox” and “Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer” in honour of those two illustrious figures.

 

Currently, the spa facilities combine original remains from the Roman era with renewed services and facilities that are adapted to all kinds of visitors who are seeking a unique health, leisure and wellness experience. All of that is in a privileged natural environment.