BEMBIBRE HEALTH RESORT

The first dating of these waters is documented in 1536 by the bachelor Olea: "There is a fountain in Viana, one in the village of Bembibre, and another in Valdiorras that has very cold water, which people bathe in before going to bed and sweating a lot and are healed from many diseases that are cured in the Molgas baths¨
In 1697 it is quoted again in the work of Crystalline Mirror of the Waters of Spain: “in the place of Bembibre where this natural spring is located ... placed inside a building as a coarse arched aqueduct, and already half in ruin, in where two people will fit inside ... The water, although a little amount is never lacking, and is crystal clear, but the smell of sulphur is bad”.

The natural spring is included in the Galician Medical Hydrology of Taboada and Leal (1877) where they quote the “cold sulphurous waters of Bembibre.” “Its physical properties are, like all of its kind, colourless, clear and transparent, with a strong smell of rotten eggs, sulphur flavour and a temperature equal to that of common water, ”he adds.
The creation of the spa is attributed to the Viennese doctor José Manuel Armesto, who opened the facilities in 1896, maintaining his activity until 1958. Armesto apparently acquired the land in 1894 and built a building to house the spa. With the passage of time, the salutary qualities of the waters and their healing powers, led to the growth of the facilities, which were completed with the construction of a new two storey building to accommodate a hotel.
To these facilities would later be added another building, currently in ruins and separated from the lodging, where the sick were treated with jets of warm water under pressure. Water heating was carried out by means of a boiler.

AN ENORMOUS CHESTNUT TREE

In the center of the village of Bembibre there was an
enormous chestnut tree that apparently reached
20 meters in diameter.
It took eleven men, hand to hand to hug the trunk of the massive tree, that's why it was frequently visited by the
spa visitors to be photographed with it.
 Spoken testimonies assure that it was cut down
during the Civil War.
In the center of the photo, taken early
in the twentieth century, the doctor José Manuel Armesto,
founder of the Bembibre spa, poses with his
hat in his hand.