Discover Evian

A spa resort with a history

BRIEF HISTORY

Evian was granted a charter and a castle was built in the 13th century, becoming a prosperous market town in the Middle Ages, and a favourite resting place for the Princes of Savoy. As a focal point of intense Catholicism and capital of the "Pays de Gavot" (Gavot country), Evian suffered the consequences of the profound religious and political upheavals that shook the 16th and 17th centuries. The town gradually emerged as a spa resort in the 18th century.

In 1789, while strolling in Evian, the Marquis de Lessert, a nobleman from the Auvergne, stopped to slake his thirst at the fountain of Saint Catherine, a spring situated on the property of a certain Monsieur Cachat. The Marquis, who suffered from a kidney ailment, found the water “refreshing and readily-absorbed.” He took to drinking it regularly and soon his health improved. He was loud in praise of its properties, and physicians took to prescribing it. Monsieur Cachat erected a fence around his spring and began selling the water. That was the origin of “Source Cachat,” the natural mineral water of Evian.

The flow of visitors to the town, whether to take the waters or just to visit, dried up during the revolutionary and Napoleonic eras. But it resumed under Sardinian rule, and gathered strength after the annexation of Savoy by France. Tourism flourished in the late 19th century, reaching its zenith with the advent of thermal cures and mass tourism in the 20th century.

Source : City of Evian