Évaux-les-Bains is a commune in the Creuse department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in central France.

History

A spa town founded by the Romans in the first century, who developed thermal baths and called the place “Ivaonum,” possibly after a deity, Ivaos. It became a place of pilgrimage after the sixth century, because of the tomb of the Christian hermit Marien. A monastery was built here in the tenth century, but this was destroyed in the seventeenth century. It was the regional capital of the Combraille in the thirteenth century and was besieged during the Hundred Years War by the Routiers. The Roman baths, abandoned since the fifth century, became popular again at the beginning of the 17th century and again in the nineteenth century.

Geography

An area of lakes and streams, forestry, farming and associated light industry, consisting of a small town and several hamlets situated between the valleys of the rivers Cher and Tardes, some 14 mi southwest of Montluçon, at the junction of the D19, D20, D996 and the D915 roads. The commune is on the border with the department of Allier and is served by a TER railway link to Montluçon. The river Tardes flows into the Cher in the commune, 7.5 km north of the town.

Population

Sights