History of Ax-les-Thermes: six investigations into the hot water
Water that takes centuries to rise from five kilometres underground. A stone basin nobody can quite agree who built, or why. Two coins for the whole of the Roman era. A train that took eleven years to arrive, and a casino that took nearly thirty years to finish. Ax-les-Thermes keeps its stories in its springs, its walls and its archives — and rarely tells them the same way twice.
We went back to the sources. The six investigations below draw on the Inventaire du patrimoine records, excavation reports, geologists' studies and local institutional pages. They follow one simple rule: in each, we separate what the sources establish, what they suggest, and what they leave open. You’ll find the open questions are often the most interesting. Read them in order, oldest to most recent, or pick the one that intrigues you.
Did the Romans take the waters at Ax? Two coins, one doubt
"A thermal spa since Roman times" — the phrase appears everywhere. Yet the town hall cites only one Roman trace: two coins from the 3rd and 4th centuries, found in the 19th century by a certain "abbé Garrigou," who may not have been an abbot at all. At Luchon, the Romans left altars, basins and channels. At Ax, they left two coins. What can really be concluded from that? The investigation moves from the 2006 excavations to the hypothesis of a Gallo-Roman village, and explains what would prove — or disprove — the existence of ancient baths.
The Bassin des Ladres: legend or cradle of thermalism?
On Place du Breilh, you can still dip your feet, for free, in a basin dating from the 13th century. Tradition holds it was built in 1260 to treat soldiers of Saint Louis who returned leprous from the Crusades. But the 2006 soundings date the stone, not the intention, and the name "Ladres" doesn’t appear in writing until the end of the 18th century. Five centuries of silence: is the legend true, late, or a bit of both? An investigation into a listed monument everyone thinks they already know.
From bathhouse to casino: Ax becomes a spa town
In 1821, a plan shows Ax’s baths: low, plain buildings, cubicles, bathtubs. A century later, the town has a casino with a theatre, parks, a thermal company and electricity. In between lies a story of rebuilding: the Teich and its glass roofs, the Modèle and its 72 shareholders, a first casino project blocked by a cemetery, a London concessionaire dropped in 1901, and in 1907 a theatre covered in tarpaulin for lack of a roof. How did a small spa town become a Belle Époque resort?
Why did the train reach Ax 11 years after Tarascon?
In 1877, the railway reaches Tarascon. It won’t reach Ax until 1888. For eleven years, a spa-goer from Toulouse has to finish the journey another way, while the neighbouring resort of Ussat organises its own coach connections from the station. The line was originally meant to stop at Tarascon, and the valley climbs 230 metres over roughly 25 kilometres. Did the wait cost the spa town dearly? And why did Ax remain the terminus for over forty years, until the line to Spain opened in 1929? A story of rails, local councillors and doubt.
60 springs, 2 boreholes: where did Ax’s hot water go?
In 1988, sixteen springs still fed the baths. Today, two boreholes are enough. In between, the town counted around sixty springs — nobody even knows exactly how many, since the figures vary depending on what’s counted. They were polluted, captured, abandoned. Two still serve as living witnesses, since they must legally keep flowing, and another still rises from the ground beneath a building. The investigation traces the water’s journey, five kilometres beneath the granite massif, and tells how a town replaced its springs with pipes.
Ax’s baths: from the commune to Eurothermes, and back
Who owns Ax’s water, who owns the buildings, and who treats the patients? In 1985, the commune sets up a mixed-economy company. In 1994, a thirty-year contract hands operation to a private group. In December 2023, the mixed-economy company buys the operator back for €5.5 million. In between, the sources disagree on who actually owns the buildings, and the number of patients has dropped from around 8,000 in the 1960s to 4,000 in 2023. An investigation into money, power and hot water.
Where to start?
If you like puzzles, start with the Bassin des Ladres and the two Roman coins. If you prefer numbers and maps, read the story of the springs and boreholes. If the local economy interests you, the investigation into the baths' operators will surprise you. And to understand why the town looks the way it does, the Belle Époque and the train hold the keys.
These investigations remain open. Do you have an old postcard, a photograph, a family memory tied to the baths or the casino? Write to us at contact@axstays.com: we add to our articles with what you bring us, and we credit our sources.
Want to go further back into the region’s history, beyond the baths? About ten kilometres away, the ruins of Château de Lordat tell another chapter of Haute-Ariège’s past: the last refuge of the Cathars, hunted down after the fall of Montségur.
To continue your visit, our page on the Studio Natik is a 160-metre walk from the baths.