In the early 20th century, the fame of the thermal waters of Caldes had reached far beyond the neighbouring towns; people in Barcelona spoke of the therapeutic use of the Caldetes waters, and the newspaper La Veu de Catalunya published advertisements praising its virtues.
However, Caldes not only has thermal water; one must not forget the different aquifers in its subsoil, which have provided drinking water and irrigation to the town’s inhabitants since ancient times. For such a small town, it was very lucky to have such a rich and abundant heritage of water: the mines, the springs, the mills, the irrigation pond and the thermal baths.
With regard to the mills, Caldes had three functioning mills before the war: Molí de dalt, located where Carrer del Molí can now be found, Molí de la bassa, between the irrigation pond and the thermal baths (now the rector’s flats and, behind, the Molí de la bassa park, whose name refers to it) and Molí de baix, located at the end of the passage on Carrer de Sant Pere (on the other side of the creek, where the name of a particular house, “El molí vell” (The Old Windmill) reminds us of its past history.
There are currently still fragments of the pipelines that connected the three mills and carried water from Molí de dalt (upper mill) to Molí de baix (lower mill) going through the middle mill. When the tank of the first mill was full enough, the floodgates opened and all three mills were put into operation, following an agreement between the millers. If you look out from the stone bench behind the building, you can still see the passage of this irrigation along the side of the thermal baths.
1. Santema and the Palau Foundation Street
4. Parròquia de Santa Maria (Parish of St. Mary)
6. The Old Town Centre and the Lime Kiln
7. Capella del Carme and Carrer d´El Callao Street
11. Hotel Colón and the Sea Baths
13. Can Comillas and Can Nadal
