BAGNERES-DE-BIGORRE, ba'nyar' de be-g6e, France (anciently Aquensis Vicus, Bigerronum), celebrated watering-place in the department of Hautes-Pyrenees, capital of the arrondissement of the same name, at the entrance of the valley of Campan, on the left bank of the Adour, 13 miles south-southeast from Tarbes. Its site is one of the most ro mantic in the Pyrenees. Well-cultivated slopes surround it on all sides, and are terminated in the distance by a mountain range, the most conspicuous summit in which is the Pic du Midi. The town is well built and contains sev eral good squares and numerous spacious, hand some streets. There are about 30 mineral springs of varied temperature and of different chemical composition, each of which is consid: ered a specific for different diseases. Bagneres owes its chief celebrity to its baths, which are sulphurous and saline. There are 10 bathing establishments, of which the principal, known as the Fracasti, is very complete, and is the largest and most handsome building of the town. It stands at one of its extremities, im
mediately under Mount Olivet, and is ap proached by a long avenue of poplars winding through a verdant valley. About 25,000 or 30,000 invalids and tourists visit the place annually. It is a centre for winter sports, and many fetes are arranged each year. The inhabitants de pend chiefly on the baths, almost every house receiving lodgers; but the manufactures are of some importance. The chief of these are a kind of crape and a fine woolen gauze woven into shawls and scarfs. There are marble quarries in the neighborhood, from which come a high grade of table tops and chimney pieces. The springs here were known to and used by the Romans, and various ancient remains are still in existence. -Pop. (1911) 8,455.