Roman pools, still in use
The Roman baths, whose so-called ‘Bains de la Reine’ pool is still visible inside today's spa, date to the 2nd century AD. Few thermal establishments in France can claim such continuous use since antiquity: the Romans had already identified the Mondony valley's hot springs and built pools that, in modernised form, are still in use today.
A fort was built in the 17th century to protect the spa, following the same defensive logic as the neighbouring Vauban-era strongholds of the Vallespir. But it was in 1840 that the town took its current name, in honour of Queen Marie-Amélie, wife of Louis-Philippe I, who came for a cure, her patronage lending the spa a national prestige it has kept ever since.
Right next door, the hilltop village of Palalda, merged into the commune in 1942, keeps its cobbled lanes and stone houses away from the spa bustle, standing as an even older witness to Vallespir life before the cures arrived.