Baden thermal baths

The Baden thermal baths are the oldest known hot springs in Switzerland. They are located in Baden and neighboring Ennetbaden in the canton of Aargau, on both sides of a prominent bend in the Limmat river. At the intersection between the Swiss Plateau and the Folded Jura, the thermal water flows through layers of shell limestone and rises to the surface in the spring area through fissures in the Keuper layer above. Of the total of 21 springs, 18 are located in Baden and three in Ennetbaden. The water has an average temperature of 46.6 °C and contains a particularly high proportion of calcium and sulphates. With a total mineralization of 4450 mg/l, it is the richest in minerals in the entire country. The Celts were the first to use the healing powers of thermal water during the late Latène period. At the beginning of the 1st century, the Romans built important thermal baths, in the immediate vicinity of which the small town settlement of Aquae Helveticae was established. It is possible that bathing continued uninterrupted in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. There have been written sources about the baths since the 13th century. During Habsburg rule and after the conquest of Aargau by the Swiss Confederates, Baden was one of the most important spas in Europe and was visited by numerous high-ranking individuals. It was not least because of the baths that the Confederates held their most important conventions here from 1416. The attraction began to wane from around 1500 and reached its first low point towards the end of the 18th century. In the 19th century, Baden's baths once again experienced a heyday when spa treatments became a mass phenomenon. Massive investment in hotels and bathing facilities increased their appeal and attracted a wealthy international clientele during the Belle Époque. The decline began during the First World War and accelerated from the 1950s onwards. Baden missed out on modern developments and around the year 2000 the spa business almost came to a complete standstill. The historic spa district is dominated by 19th and early 20th century spa architecture characterized by classicism and historicism, while only traces of the Gothic a

Data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).