Source Lardy

In 1965, the Etablissement des bains de 3ème classe closed its doors, to be replaced in 2001 by the Université du Pôle Lardy. The spring's buvette, now restored to its former glory with its 10 m-high carpentry dome, has little in common with the griffin in a Volvic stone basin built in 1848. Today, the Lardy spring is showcased by a mosaic of over 400,000 pieces, reconstructed exactly as it was.

UNESCO heritage
Springs, like caves, often bear the name of their "inventor". The Lardy spring, drilled in 1848, is no exception. Its current pavilion was erected in the first year of the 20th century and houses the Source Lardy refreshment bar, the last vestige of the eponymous spa, which was transformed a century later into a university complex.
Architect Antoine Percilly (a serial builder in Vichy) is responsible for this elegant, airy gallery, which once spanned the drinking area. It is one of the last vestiges in Vichy of the fashion for wooden factories that came between heavy stone buildings and metal architecture. Even today, its elegant hexagonal dome, peppered with slate, stands out like a semaphore in the middle of the campus, testifying to the former spa vocation of the site and reminding us that here, bodies were treated long before minds were cultivated.
Since 1969, the babbling of the spring has been silenced. But real thermal springs never dry up completely, so if the water were to gush out again, it would be delighted to return home after such a long underground journey.

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