Therme Vals

Located in a remote Alpine village, Vals Thermal Bath is a treasured destination for those who like to invigorate their senses. Designed by Peter Zumthor, the bath was built completely of local materials, quartzite and concrete. In fact, it looks as if it grew right out of the crest of the Alps, a large geometric rock embedded in the hillside. Entering the bath you’ll hear and see the iron-rich water trickling down the concrete walls creating a cave-like atmosphere. The main floor has several baths, each with a different water temperature. Brave dipping into the “ice bath” and you’ll feel blood rushing through your veins, then ceremonially step into the steamy hot tub and prepare your mind for a romantic experience complete with red light-flames mysteriously flickering around you and rose petals floating exhaling a delicate, sensual aroma. To finish your experience, lounge in the tepidarium and rest your eyes on the luscious green of the Alpine slopes.

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Burnt-out humans have been drawn to this remote geothermally active Alpine valley since the Bronze Age. In 1993, the spa town hired a relatively unproven architect, Peter Zumthor, to build new bathhouses and hydrotherapy pools for the aging Vals Thermal Bath. To blend in with the natural landscape (and stand apart from the village's other undistinguished hotels) the Thermalbad was built right into the mountainside from materials quarried locally. Bathers float from warm to hot to cold and back again in a series of indoor and outdoor pools set among cubic gray stone and concrete structures that look like the natural strata of the surrounding geology. While grass grows over the roof and you enter through a subterranean tunnel, the innovative design opens up to the green valley scenery with gaps between the blocks framing the most therapeutic views possible, complete with lazily grazing cows and a backdrop of dramatic, looming jagged peaks.

Architect: Peter Zumthor; Completed: 1996

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