Liebensteiner Sauerbrunnen
The Sauerbrunnen are the former and present healing water springs in the spa town of Bad Liebenstein in the Wartburg district in Thuringia . Originally known as an Artesian spring at least since the 16th century, artesian wells were later drilled. The mineral water that springs in the village has been used for more than 400 years to bring relief and healing to spa guests as bathing and drinking water. It is one of the most carbonated medicinal springs in Germany .
history
The Liebensteiner mineral spring was first mentioned in a document in 1590. As early as 1601, the "Sauerbrunnen", named after the small town at the time below the Liebenstein Castle , was said to have a "mysterious" effect. In 1610, the polymath Andreas Libavius wrote a fountain pamphlet on behalf of Duke Johann Casimir von Sachsen-Coburg: “Tractatus Medicus Physicus and Historia Deß for the excellent Casimirian Sawer fountain located under Libenstein not far from Schmalkalden”. This is considered to be one of the earliest fonts in Europe and was written in early New High German .
From 1800 onwards, Duke Georg I began the strategic expansion of the Liebenstein bathing establishment. He designed the structure and in 1801 had a bathing director set up. Important buildings in the (neo) classical style were built in the spa center. After his early death, his wife, Regent Luise Leonore, consistently continued her husband's plans.
From April to October 1816, the well temple planned by Georg I was built in the form of a domed rotunda , which was later to represent one of the landmarks of the city of Bad Liebenstein. This was executed in the style of a Greek round temple with Doric columns in front. The actual tap of the well was located 2 m deep, surrounded by granite foundations. However, photo documents from the 1930s show that the Sauerbrunnen in the well temple was also served at ground level.
In the course of the 19th century, additional mineral springs were developed to meet the increasing demand in the growing spa.
As a result of insufficient use of the baths, the cold water sanatorium was established in 1840. However, this did not use the Liebensteiner mineral water, but mineral-free water from the Kellerloch 4 km away in the Thuringian Valley, which had supplied the hydropathic institute with a water pipe specially installed for this purpose.
Today the water is obtained from a 165 m deep well drilled in 1951. The healing water is available daily in the foyer for treatments, and mineral baths (sour fountains) are administered in stainless steel tubs in the Kurhaus. Since its thorough renovation in 2015–2018, the well temple has also been supplied with the healing water of the Sauerbrunnen again. The three local health clinics do not use the Liebensteiner Sauerbrunnen in their houses, although the prerequisites for this sometimes exist.
A water protection area has been designated for the Liebensteiner Heilwasserbrunnen since 1983 .
Say to the discovery of the healing spring
Once a cowherd led the herd entrusted to him daily to pasture in the Liebenstein cauldron. This area is delimited by the Burgberg and Aschenberg, and there was also the water trough, which was fed by surface water. He noticed that one of his cows, which was pregnant, had a particularly healthy-looking, shiny coat. To get to the bottom of the matter, he watched the cow. He noticed that she often moved away from the herd and generally drank it from water that oozed from the ground under an old willow tree. Having become curious, he also tasted the source and noticed a special taste. He reported this to his lord of the castle, Herrmann vom Stein zum Liebenstein. Convinced of the obvious peculiarity of the water, it had the area around the spring cleaned. Many residents then used this well equipped with a special taste. Over the years it has been found that with regular drinking certain diseases were relieved or even completely cured.
Geological relationships
258 million years ago there was a shallow Zechstein Sea on today's territory of Germany, which had extended into our region, but also into what is now Scotland, Norway, the Baltic States and Belarus, and was roughly twice the size of the Black Sea. Within 8 million years, the sea often dried up and filled up again. Among other things, huge amounts of table salt were deposited. This explains the way in which the table salt got into the healing spring. Also a consequence of the Zechstein Sea is the so-called Morgentor Plateau, which is located in the middle of the city and represents one of the largest Zechstein reefs in Germany. The extraordinarily diverse landscape park with Altenstein Castle extends over it .
During the geologically relatively young phase, in which the neighboring Rhön formed 25 million to approx. 5 million years ago , volcanic gases rose, especially in the Thuringian Rhön, mainly carbon dioxide . This also reached the Liebenstein area and was ultimately responsible for the " champagne effect " that triggered and still triggers the tingling sensation when bathing in the Liebenstein medicinal water. High-purity carbon dioxide, which accumulated below the Zechstein salts, was also extracted in the Vorderrhön in the 20th century for the chemical industry and the beverage industry.
The Liebensteiner healing water is mainly formed by the precipitation falling on the mountain edge, which is strongly enriched with carbonic acid in the depths . On its way from the depths, this carbonic acid brought various metals into their soluble compounds and thus carried them to the surface. Of crucial importance is the fact that Liebenstein lies on what is known as a fault (crack in the earth's crust). This mountain edge fault is primarily responsible for the circulation and rise of the medicinal, iron-containing spring water; originally it worked like an artesian well . It was not until the middle of the 19th century that drilling was carried out that resulted in an artesian well .
The iron contained in the Sauerbrunnen does not come from the surface iron deposits on the edge of the mountains, as one might suspect from the 1000-year history of mining, smelting and processing of iron in the region, but from ferrous magma rocks deep down. At the geological natural monument “Korällchen” (located on Inselsbergstrasse) there are so-called mixed passages in the edge area of the Ruhlaer Kristallin. Igneous rock (granite porphyry) penetrated into a crevice of the much older "Liebensteiner Gneiss". When it cools down and in contact with the neighboring rock, new types of rock and structural structures were created. These mixed passages are a characteristic of the Liebenstein area and an explanation of how many minerals get into the Sauerbrunnen due to these special geological conditions.
Applications
The highly carbonated water is used as a drinking cure or as a spa treatment. In balneotherapy, it is used primarily for the treatment of heart diseases and high blood pressure. The water is suitable as a drinking cure for people with calcium and iron deficiency.
Ludwig Bechstein described the Liebenstein spa treatment in 1842 in "Liebenstein and Altenstein":
“The mineral water is first fed to a lid 10 feet long and 4 feet 3 inches high, made up of eight cast iron plates. From this reservoir, the mineral water is led by means of metal pipes into the seven bathtubs made of colored domestic marble, which are located in six comfortably and appropriately furnished bath cabinets. Since the mineral water, along with other important components, would lose its large amount of carbonate gas when heated, the hot water from the sinkhole source informs it of the degree of warmth necessary for bathers. "
literature
- The Liebensteiner Fountain Font from 1610 , Heinrich-Jung-Verlagsgesellschaft Zella-Mehlis / Thuringia 2016, ISBN 978-3-943552-13-3
- Historical, statistical, geographical and topographical description of the royal and ducal Saxon houses and lands in general and of the Saxon-Coburg-Meiningian house and its lands in particular by Ernst Julius Walch, Schneider and Weigel, Nuremberg 1811
- Bad Liebenstein- Its healing springs, their effect and application by Dr.C. Knecht, M.Kaffenberger, Bad Liebenstein book printing company
- Bad Liebenstein - the heart bath of the GDR by Prof. Dr. Ernst Kaiser at the Rudolf Forkel KG Pössneck publishing house in 1959
- Between Ruhla, Bad Liebenstein and Steinbach Akademie-Verlag Berlin 1989
Web links
- Private website about the Liebenstein mineral springs
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bad Liebenstein - Heilquellen ( Memento of the original from February 5, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on March 21, 2017
- ↑ Bad Liebenstein - Brunnenschrift ( Memento of the original dated February 5, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on March 21, 2017
- ↑ Heimatfreundebali - bathing operation , accessed on March 23, 2017
- ^ Heimatfreundebali - Fountain Temple , accessed on March 23, 2017
- ^ Heimatfreundebali - Kaltwasseranstalt , accessed on March 23, 2017
- ↑ a b Bad Liebenstein - Heilquellen ( Memento of the original dated February 5, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on March 21, 2017
- ^ Marie-Luise Otto: The healing water brought up, Südthüringer Zeitung of March 14, 2018
- ↑ Decision 528/56/83 of the Bad Salzungen District Council of March 7, 1983
- ^ Walter Börner: Bad Liebenstein. Small chronicle of the bath. Bad Salzungen 1957 pp. 5–8.
- ^ Geyer, Jahne, Storch: Geological sights of the Wartburg district and the independent city of Eisenach . In: District Office Wartburgkreis, Lower Nature Conservation Authority (Hrsg.): Nature conservation in the Wartburgkreis . Issue 8. Printing and publishing house Frisch, Eisenach and Bad Salzungen 1999, ISBN 3-9806811-1-4 .
