Through history, spa towns have welcomed musicians, painters, philosophers, writers and artists who found here a source of inspiration for their works.
Their presence and the pieces of art they produced have made spa towns to play a major role in the history of European culture and creativity.
Enghien-les-Bains’s romantic lake captivated the imagination of great writers such as Alexandre Dumas, George Sand or Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who even has its own museum today in the neighbouring town of Montmercy.
Dostoievski discovered the fever of gambling during his visit to Wiesbaden and its famous Casino.
His passion for roulette games was the inspiration for The Gambler, set in the town of Roulettenburg, a literary disguise of the real Wiesbaden.
Romanticism helped to build the idyllic myth of the European spa towns.
Writers Gustave Flaubert and Guy de Maupassant, for example, captivated themselves at the glance of the Pyrenees, the wild mountains surrounding the spa town of Luchon.
Montecatini’s guest book includes composers such as Verdi and Puccini, who wrote part of La Boheme here.
In the 50’s and 60’s the town was a symbol for Italian Dolce Vita, popular among celebrities as Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn or Christian Dior.
Jane Austen lived in Bath at the beginning of the 19th century. The way of life in the Regency period and the magnificent Georgian architecture of the town is brilliantly evoked in her novels, specially Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both set in the spa town.
