A count who became a monk, a village that became a spa town
The Saint-Martin-du-Canigou abbey, perched at 1,055 metres on a rocky spur above Vernet, was founded in the year 1009 by Guifred II, Count of Cerdanya, who chose to end his life there as a simple monk after having ruled. The site, still hard to reach today, says a great deal about its founders' demand for spiritual withdrawal.
Spa tourism, on the other hand, took off much later, in the 19th century, once European aristocracy discovered the local springs' benefits for treating rheumatism. The village then filled with Belle Époque villas and a casino, drawing visitors from far away, including British writer Rudyard Kipling, who stayed there in the early 20th century and praised the view of the Canigou in his writing, judging it superior to that of many Alpine peaks he had already visited.