FRANCE	FRANCE
région: Grand Est
département: 88, Vosges

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Plombières-les-Bains is situated at an elevation of 571 m on the Augronne river in the département Vosges in the région Grand Est of northeastern France. It lies about 23 km south of Épinal, the chef-lieu of the département, about 84 km south of Nancy, 70 km west of Colmar, and about 118 km southwest of Strasbourg. The municipality has a population of about 1,600 (2020).

The hot springs were discovered as early as Gallo-Roman times and used for the first thermal baths. Destroyed during the Migration of Peoples (4th to 6th centuries), it was rebuilt in the Middle Ages. On the territory of the commune there are 27 weakly mineralized hot springs rich in trace elements. The thermal springs of Plombières reach temperatures between 57 and 84 degrees Celsius. Among the visitors of the bath were Michel de Montaigne, Voltaire, the Dukes of Guise, the Dukes of Lorraine, Pierre Beaumarchais, Napoléon Bonaparte, Joséphine de Beauharnais, Napoléon III, Hector Berlioz, Alphonse de Lamartine and Alfred de Musset. On 21 July 1858, Emperor Napoléon III secretely met Camillo Benso, count of Cavour, the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont, and negotiated the 'Plombières Agreement', which granted French aid to the cause of Piedmont-Sardinia against the Austrian Empire in return for the territories of Savoy and Nice, which thereafter became French.

The Roman Bath [left, no. 4343: foreground] has existed since Antiquity. At that time, the site was occupied by a rectangular pool in the open air, 40 m long by 9 m wide, bordered by four tiers, with naturally heated thermal water. After several reconstructions throughout history, Robert Danis built a new building in 1936/1938. The vestibule retains the four Gallo-Roman tiers; it is decorated with mosaics and murals by Franck Danis, and a draped statue of the Roman Consul (entrusted by the Louvre Museum in Paris). The whole is listed as a historical monument since 2001.

[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plombi%C3%A8res-les-Bains, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plombi%C3%A8res-les-Bains, https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plombi%C3%A8res-les-Bains; http://fallingrain.com/world/FR/B2/PlombiereslesBains.html]