Vichy (, ; ) is a city in the central French department of Allier. Located on the Allier river, it is a major spa and resort town and during World War II was the de facto administrative capital of Vichy France. Its population is about 25,000.
Known for its mineral springs since the Roman times, Vichy had become a major destination for the French nobility and the wealthy by the late 18th century. The town developed further under the patronage of Napoleon III. Following the 1940 armistice, the pro-German collaborationist government headed by Philippe Pétain was set up at Vichy, which remained the de facto capital of the French rump state for the next four years. After the war, the city experienced a period of great prosperity but went into decline from the 1960s.
In 2021, the town became part of the transnational UNESCO World Heritage Site under the name "Great Spa Towns of Europe" because of its famous baths and its architectural testimony to the popularity of spa towns in Europe from the 18th through 20th centuries.
Name Vichy is the French form of the Occitan name of the town, , of uncertain etymology. Dauzat & al. have proposed that it derived from an unattested Latin name () referencing the most important regional landowner (presumably a "Vippius") during the time of the Roman emperor Diocletian's administrative reorganizations and land surveys at the end of the 3rd century AD..
The name Vichy may be pronounced or in either American or British English;.. its usual French pronunciation is . The pronunciation of the Occitan name is .
In French, the present-day demonym for a female resident or native of Vichy is , f sg (Vichyssoises, f pl) and , m sg for a male, and Vichyssois m pl for a mixed group of both sexes. Until the 18th century, it was also common to use (e), which derived from the Occitan name of the town. The cold soup vichyssoise is also named after the town.
Geography and geology Vichy lies on the banks of the river Allier. The source of the Allier is in the nearby Massif Central plateau which lies only a few miles to the south, near the region's capital, Clermont-Ferrand.
The historical existence of volcanic activity in the Massif Central is somewhat visually evident. Volcanic eruptions have happened for at least 150,000 years, but all volcanoes there have been dormant for at least 112 years. Volcanic activity in the area is the direct cause of the many thermal springs that exist in and around Vichy.
The famous mineral springs in Vichy are rich in trace elements such as lithium and fluorine, and high in sodium bicarbonate. The temperatures of the spring range from 21°C (70°F) at Antoine Spring to at Lafayette Spring. In total, about 289 springs have been charted in Vichy and its surroundings. These springs are derived from infiltration through Oligocene-period sedimentary rocks, part of the Limagne Graben collapse basin.
Climate Vichy enjoys an oceanic climate (Cfb). Heavy snows in the Massif Central often make roads impassable, but Vichy is low enough—about above sea level—that the climate is more continental than mountain. Rainfall is moderate around Vichy, averaging about annually.
History
Roman era
The first known settlement at Vichy was established by Roman legionaries in 52BC. Returning south from their defeat at the Battle of Gergovia by the Gauls under Vercingetorix, they found the hot mineral springs beside the ("River Allier") and established the township of Aquae Calidae (Latin for "Hot Waters"). During the first two centuries AD, Vichy became fairly prosperous because of the supposed medicinal value of the thermal springs.
Middle Ages
On 2 September 1344, John II of France ceded the noble fiefdom of Vichy to Peter I, Duke of Bourbon. On 6 December 1374, the last part of Vichy was acquired by Louis II, Duke of Bourbon. At that point Vichy was incorporated into the House of Bourbon. In 1410, a Celestinian monastery was founded with twelve monks. A building located above the Celestinian Spring is still visible.
In 1527, the House of Bourbon was incorporated into the French Kingdom. By the end of the 16th century, the mineral baths had obtained a reputation for having quasi-miraculous curing powers and attracted patients from the noble and wealthy classes. Government officials, such as Fouet and Chomel, began to classify the curing properties of the mineral baths.
Vichy's thermal baths
Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné was a patient in 1676 and 1677 and would popularize Vichy's Thermal Baths through the written descriptions in her letters. The Vichy waters were said to have cured the paralysis in her hands, thus enabling her to take up letter-writing. In 1761 and 1762, Adélaïde and Victoire of France, the daughters of Louis XV, came to Vichy for the first time and returned in 1785. The bath facilities seemed extremely uncomfortable to them because of the muddy surroundings and insufficient access. When they returned to Versailles, they asked their nephew Louis XVI to build roomier and more luxurious thermal baths, which were subsequently completed in 1787.
In 1799, Laetitia Bonaparte, mother of Napoleon, came to be cured with her son Louis. Under the Empire, Le Parc des Sources, was created on the Emperor's orders (Decree of Gumbinen of 1812).
Under Charles X, the great increase in patients wishing to be healed at the springs led to an expansion of the hydrotherapeutic facilities. Princess Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte expanded the Janson buildings under the plan of Rose – Beauvais (work completed in 1830). From 1844 to 1853, theatrical and poetry recitals were performed for the wealthy in the comfort of their own homes by .
Vichy in style
By the 19th century, Vichy was a station à la mode, attended by many celebrities. However, it was the stays of Napoleon III between 1861 and 1866 that were to cause the most profound transformation of the city: dikes were built along the Allier, of landscaped gardens replaced the old marshes and, along the newly laid-out boulevards and streets, chalets and pavilions were built for the emperor and his court. Recreational pursuits were not spared: in view of the park, a large casino was built by the architect Badger in 1865. The Emperor would be the catalyst of the development of a small rail station, which increased the number of inhabitants and visitors tenfold in fifty years.
After the Second French Empire, the Belle Époque marked the second large construction campaign in Vichy. In 1903, the Opera House (l'Opéra), the and a large bath designed in the eastern style were inaugurated. In 1900, the was enclosed by a metal gallery which came from the World Fair of 1889. long, it is decorated by a frise de chardons and was completed by the ironworker Emile Robert. Many private mansions with varied architectural styles were erected during the first half of the 20th century.
Vichy welcomed 40,000 curistes in 1900, and that figure had risen to nearly 100,000 just before the onset of the First World War. La vie thermale had its heyday in the 1930s. The success in treating ailments that was attributed to the Vichy Baths led la Compagnie Fermière to enlarge the Baths again by creating the Callou and Lardy Baths. The Art Nouveau-style Opéra, inaugurated in 1903, accommodated all the great names on the international scene. Vichy became the summertime music capital of France, but the war of 1914 would put a brutal end to that development. The Hôtel de Ville was officially opened in 1928.
World War II – Seat of the pro-German collaborationist government
Following the stunning defeat of Allied forces in just four weeks, on 10 June 1940 the French government fled Paris for Bordeaux. On 22 June, France signed an armistice, which stipulated German occupation of the north and west of the country, including Paris and all of the Atlantic coast. The remaining two-fifths of France became the unoccupied Free Zone (Zone Libre). On 29 June the government and its parliamentarians moved to Clermont-Ferrand. Finding the city too cramped, on 1 July it moved on to Vichy.
German forces had taken the city unopposed on 19 June, but departed with the Armistice. Vichy had the country's second largest hotel capacity, and a modern telephone exchange and post office built for its international visitors. The city was in the unoccupied zone south of the Demarcation Line, relatively close to Paris (4.5 hours by train), and surrounded by productive agricultural lands. Pierre Laval, soon to be Prime Minister, hailed from Châteldon, a village south of Vichy. The city was, in any case, expected to be only a temporary seat of government until signature of the peace treaty.Nazi Germany was never to sign a peace treaty with any of its defeated opponents, but this was not foreseen in 1940-41. The armistice arrangements with France perfectly satisfied its military, economic, and administrative requirements.
On 9–10 July, 670 of the 846 members of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies met in the Vichy Opera House, where they overwhelmingly voted full powers to Philippe Pétain and authorized him to revise the constitution. The new regime called itself simply the French State (État Français), but it quickly came to be known as Vichy France. While Paris remained the official capital and much of the bureaucracy stayed there, Vichy was the de facto capital. It was home to Pétain's cabinet, top civil servants, the diplomatic corps, and the neutered parliamentarians. As the volume of individuals engaged in government activity adversely affected locals and the spa business, a system of residence permits was established that permitted only five days' maximum stay between 1 June and 30 September.
Following the Anglo-American invasion of North Africa in November 1942, Germany occupied the Free Zone, including Vichy. The Pétain government remained, albeit with an even smaller range of effective action. The city became a center for Gestapo and the Vichy milice. After the Allied breakout from Normandy in August 1944, the Germans took Pétain and his entourage to exile in Germany. The Envoy of the Swiss Confederation to France, Minister Walter Stucki, arranged for the peaceful withdrawal of local German forces and the milice. The FFI liberated the city on 26 August without bloodshed.
The term "Vichyste", which designates partisans of the Pétain regime, should not be confused with "Vichyssois" which designates the inhabitants of the city.
Reine des villes d'eaux
The 1950s and 1960s would become the most ostentatious period for Vichy, complete with parading personalities, visits from crowned heads (Thami El Glaoui, the Pasha of Marrakech; Prince Rainier III of Monaco) and profits from a massive influx of North African French clients who holidayed in Vichy, spending lavishly. There were thirteen cinemas (which sometimes showed special previews), eight dance halls and three theatres. It was at this period that the station would take the title of "Reine des villes d'eaux" (Queen of the Spa Towns).
From June to September, so many French-Algerian tourists were arriving that it almost seemed like there was an airlift set up between Vichy-Charmeil and the airports of Algeria. Mayor (1950–1967) decided to create (10 June 1963) and Omnisports Park (1963–68), giving the city its current look.
Decline of Vichy
The war in Algeria (1950s–60s), which led to decolonization, marked once again a halt in the prosperity of Vichy, which from then on had to deal with much less favorable conditions. The need to continue to pay the debts incurred by the considerable investments that had been made in more prosperous times obligated the new mayor, (1967–1989), the successor of Pierre Coulon, to adopt a much more careful policy of management.
Modern revival