Balneario de Marmolejo

Published on 09/05/2016

Marmolejo (Campiña de Jaén)

Monuments

The first written recording about the medicinal water of Marmolejo dates back to 1701, but it won’t be until the 19th century that this little town and its hot spring would be popular.
Marmolejo, with less than 4000 inhabitants, became the favourite place for the wealthy Spanish people. The spa triggered the economic revolution in town; 3 cinemas, 4 casinos, 7 hotels, theatre and several shops were opened.
It is in 1950 that the spa starts to decline, provoking the closure of several hotels when the number of visitors decreased. In 1997 the flood of the river Guadalquivir destroyed a big part of the spa and mixed with the hot spring ending up with the closure of the spa.
In 2001 the Town Hall acquired the spa and reopened it in 2004. However in 2009 new floods by the river Guadalquivir destroyed the spa again, and left it in the state that you can see in our report.

More about this place…

The recent history of Marmolejo is linked to its water and hot springs. With less than 4000 inhabitants, this small town dedicated mainly to farming, used the term ‘ the 3rd harvest’ to refer to all the economical improvement generated by the spa. Marmolejo’s hot springs were both kept in bottles and also used as a spa for 185 years till the Guadalquivir river floods ended up with the place. It was reopened again in 2004 by the Town Council, but a new flood from the river would end up with the dream just 5 years later.