Ourense is a city and capital of the homonymous province located in the autonomous community of Galicia, northwestern Spain. It is on the Portuguese Way path of the Road of St James (Camino de Santiago). It is also known as A cidade das Burgas (in Galician) due to its hot springs, being one of the European cities with the greatest thermal heritage.

The ancient city called Auria is located on both banks of the Miño river in the south-central part of Galicia, at an elevation of 128 meters above sea level.

Four rivers cross the town: Miño (the main river), Barbaña, Loña and Barbañica. The biggest river divides a rather industrial western suburb, which contains the railroad station, from the main town. Three highway and one railroad bridge cross the river in addition to the famous Roman bridge, Ponte Vella, which is now closed to vehicle traffic. The town is surrounded by forests, mainly oak and pine.

One of the main tourist attractions is related to hot springs, as Ourense holds one of the greatest amount of geothermal water in Europe, becoming one of the six founding cities of the European Association of Historic Thermal Cities in 2009. It is estimated that three million liters of hot springs flow every day throughout the province. There are several places called pozas, burgas (galician terms) or termas (shared term between galician and spanish), with or without entrance fee, where you can have a bath outdoors. One of them (As Burgas) is located inside the old town centre, relating to the ancient Roman tradition, as ruins of a Roman bath were discovered and are now open to visitors.

There are more hot springs located along the river Miño:

• Termas da Chavasqueira. They are located near the fire station and the main entrance to the city, surrounded by green areas and the Miño river. Its waters flow at 63ºC and are bicarbonated, fluorinated, and sulfurized with medium mineralization.
• Fonte do Tinteiro. It's a manual traction fountain that expels low-mineralized, alkaline, sulphurous, fluorinated and mesothermal waters, located just 500 meters from the A Chavasqueira thermal area, at a 43°C temperature.
• Pozas do Muíño da Veiga. They are located 3km from the city, next to an old renovated mill. The space has a large main hot spring of 200m², a second of 130 m² and two others of 55 and 45 meters respectively. Its waters flow at a temperature between 65°C and 72°C. As for its composition, they are low-mineralized, fluorinated, silicated and alkaline waters.
• Pozas de Outariz. They're near the Pozas do Muíño da Veiga, 4km from the city, and have two different parts separated by a pedestrian bridge that connects the OU-402 road with the enclosure: at the top are the Pozas de Outariz hot springs and at the bottom the Burgas de Canedo ones. The waters of this enclosure are low-mineralized, fluorinated, silicated and bicarbonated. The temperature at which these waters flow is 60°C.