Fountain of St Clement's Temple

On May 1st, 1824, a certain Louis-Alexandre Dürr, from this family of Aargau origin which was a pioneer on the banks of the Avançon in terms of tourist investments, opened to the public, just opposite or almost opposite the Great Hall of today, the Grand Hôtel des Bains, whose exploitation was going to last a little more than 100 years before being transformed into rentals in the 30's of the past century. With the development of the thermalism, the needs in water became more and more important.

So, in 1833, Mr. Dürr and another big owner of the time, François Veillon (who was also the syndic) signed, before a notary, an agreement with the commune of Bex for the use of a communal reservoir where the water coming from springs that our two owners, Dürr and Veillon, had bought from citizens originating from Ollon, would transit. These springs were probably located in the forest area between the present-day Valentines district and the Monts. Later, they also used the water from the Rippaz spring, which the future Hôtel des Salines would develop from Les Plans-sur-Bex.

The two investors were responsible for maintaining the water pipes upstream and downstream of the reservoir. The water thus supplied the entire sector located near the Temple and thus made it possible to significantly increase the thermal capacity of the Hôtel de Bains and the former Hôtel de l'ours, which became the Hôtel de l'Union, of which the Dürr family would also become the owners.