Photo by Micha, via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
🇨🇭 Switzerland · Graubünden
♨ Temperature
36°C
⛰ Altitude
1252 m
⚗ pH
7.8
💧 TDS
420 mg/L
🌊 Flow rate
30 L/s
📅 Established
1996 (current building)
✓ Verified on 2026-07-22
Therme Vals is one of the most discussed buildings of the late 20th century — a thermal bath complex designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor and completed in 1996, built into the Alpine mountainside of the village of Vals in Graubünden. The building is constructed almost entirely from local Valser quartzite stone, 60,000 slabs of which line the walls, floors, and pools in a space of extraordinary tactile and spatial richness. The interior is a sequence of chambers — some open to sky, some enclosed and dimly lit — where pools of varying temperature and mineral character invite contemplative immersion. The spring water that feeds the baths has been used by the community of Vals since at least the 19th century, but Zumthor's building transformed the site into an architectural pilgrimage destination.
| Sulphur | 8 mg/L |
| Calcium | 82 mg/L |
| Magnesium | 28 mg/L |
| Bicarbonate | 185 mg/L |
The village of Vals has drawn visitors to its mountain spring since the 19th century, but the thermal site gained international significance when Zumthor's building was completed in 1996. The architect's approach — using local stone, embedding the building into the hillside, and designing spaces for meditative immersion — transformed what was a modest alpine spa into a site of global architectural importance.
Therme Vals has generated a distinct form of architectural tourism: visitors who travel specifically to experience the building as a work of art, and who find that the immersive qualities of the space are inseparable from the act of bathing. Zumthor himself has described the design as an attempt to distil the essence of bathing — warmth, stone, light, and water — into a pure architectural experience.
Therme Vals uses the natural geothermal spring of the Vals valley, which has flowed continuously for centuries. The building's integration into the hillside reduces visual impact and heat loss. Access is managed to preserve the contemplative character of the space.
Websitewww.therme-vals.ch
Address7132 Vals, Graubünden, Switzerland