MUSEUM

The Espai Aquae museum centre is located in the Castell de Caldes, a defensive construction documented since the 12th century. In 1240 it was already part of the viscounty of Cabrera, after Jaume I ceded it to the castle of Llagostera. From the 14th to the 18th century it was attached to the barony of Llagostera, which was in the hands of the Montcada family. The property remained until the 18th century, when it passed to the Earl of Montagut.

The castle occupied a large part of the Puig de Sant Grau, where there had been Roman baths at least until the 4th century. The few vestiges that have been preserved of the fortification indicate that it must have been a construction with its own wall, flanked by towers. We have reports that from the 16th century part of the Castle’s outbuildings were used as a hospital. The complex was demolished between the 18th and 19th centuries, although the eastern sector of the wall that surrounded it remained, which preserves three towers. The wall is made of squared ashlars, with the presence of loopholes and the atalus base.

At that time the State, which had the public domain, auctioned this space and from the 19th century several outbuildings were built attached to the wall, one of which has a Gothic arched window. These spaces converted into homes were sold from 1880 to the industrialist Pau Estapé who acquired the entire area of Puig de Sant Grau, including the Casa Rosa (then called Dieta-Levi) for the exploitation of the thermal waters, first with the name of Xala water and later with the name of Aigua Imperial. 

In the 1980s it was converted as a municipal clinic until the construction of the current CAP in Plaça dels Donants in 2009.