Lanjaron Spa Town in Granada province

I love Lanjaron Spa town, a quaint location just South of Granada, below the Alpujarra villages.

It´s been a destination for tourists from Spain and Europe for many years, attracted by the 5 natural mineral waters that the area has. I have been lucky enough to come across this wonderful book published in 1955 about the Lanjaron Spa as a resort. The book describes (written in Spanish) the benefits of Lanjaron Spa and spending time in this town . It also highlights the variety of activities available to it´s visitors.

I just love the old advertisements that are dotted through the book. One of them (above) is for the Lanjaron Spa and it´s mineral water. Vintage simplicity.

Click this link to read a post about Vintage Travel posters

There are also a lot of photos of the town appearing in the book. This picture below shows the Lanjaron spa building the same one with it´s squared towers still in use today.

This picture above shows the entrance into the town of Lanjaron as it was in 1955. Now it is more built up and of course there is alot more cars passing through, but the location of the spa remains the same and it is one of the main attractions of Lanjaron.

Here you can see the current appearance of Lanjaron spa building taken in July 2012. This part of the complex is where you go to enjoy spa treatments. (you don´t need to be staying at the hotel, Day passes are available) In early 2012 the new hotel extension was opened, this is an elegant modern building right next to the original site.

For more information about the treatments: Balneario de Lanjaron

Among the pages of the book appear adverts from the local businesses at the time. Even though 57 years have gone by since this book was published, I was pleasantly surprised to see that several of this businesses still are up and running. The Hotel Nuevo Palas shown in the ad below, is still in it´s original location, in the centre of the main road. I love the phone number the hotel had at the time. ´8´

Another example is this advert below for Piscina del Castillo. This business was called ´the Castle Swimming Pool´ as it was situated just opposite of the Lanjaron Castle. The family running this outdoor swimming pool in the late fifties transformed the complex into a Hotel. They called it Hotel Alcadima.

Here´s a photo of the Castillo swimming pool in 1955

And here is the actual pool inside the Hotel Alcadima opposite Lanjaron castle, still run by the same family in 2012.

The hotel seems to have gone from strength to strength, it now receives many foreign visitors all year round. I was there a few weeks ago, it´s a great base for travelling around the Alpujarra villages The family are really passionate about their business, they offer a relaxing environment and comfortable accomodation. The food was excellent.

Apart from the tourists visting the town for the medicinal waters, Lanjaron spa treatments and spending time in the Alpujarra region. Another important business is the water bottling plant Lanjaron just outside the town. Here is a picture of how it was in 1955.

Now it is a large modern plant, a huge parking space for lots of Lanjaron lorries and it´s own petrol pumps too. It certainly has progressed since the fifties. The plant actually belongs to the Danone group since 2006.