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Origin and history

The Roman Bath of Plumbières-les-Bains is a thermal establishment whose origins date back to a Gallo-Roman construction, attested by sandstone stands still visible today. As early as the 16th century, doctors and writers such as Michel de Montaigne (who stayed there in 1580) or Dom Calmet (1748) described a large, open-air rectangular basin with a hypocauste naturally heated by thermal waters. The floods of 1565 and 1594, followed by the Thirty Years' War, severely damaged the site, causing a temporary decline.

A first reconstruction took place in 1702 under Duke Léopold I of Lorraine, followed by developments between 1800 and 1817. In 1837, architect Nicolas Grillot erected a new rectangular building in sandstone and marble, preserving only the ancient hypocaust. The site was entirely rebuilt between 1936 and 1938 by Robert Danis, who added a mosaic (1938) and murals signed Frank Danis, restored in 1996. The vestibule, with its Gallo-Roman stands and interior decorations, has been listed as a historic monument since 2001.

Until 2023, the Roman Bath housed Roman statues lent by the Louvre, including an Augustus in the first century BC, now removed for restoration. These elements underline the dual identity of the place, both ancient heritage and symbol of the thermal golden age of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The 18th century sources evoke a hemicircular basin bordered by four sandstone steps, still visible today. The paved ground was based on a hypocauste heated by water, a typical Roman thermal system. The works of 1837 and 1936 preserved this underground structure, while modernizing it together with noble materials (marble, sandstone) and Art Deco decorations.

The Roman Bath is part of the thermal history of Plumbières, alongside other establishments such as the Stanislas Bath or the Montaigne Bath. Its architecture thus combines three epochs: Antiquity (gradin and hypocauste), the 19th century (neoclassical structure of Grilllot) and the 1930s (Art Deco reconstruction of Danis).

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