ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE SPA TRADITION
Introduction
The Jáchymov spa developed thanks to a unique combination of mining, science and medicine. From the very beginning, the use of mineral springs and their discovery were closely connected with the progress of mining works in the Svornost and Werner mines.
As early as 1864, water from a spring encountered by miners during the sinking of the Svornost mine flooded the shaft down to the sixth level. At this depth lies the hereditary adit of St. Daniel, through which the water flowed freely into a nearby stream. At first, therefore, only springs discovered accidentally in the Werner mine were used.
According to accounts of old miners, the mine water had remarkable healing effects and relieved pain in joints and muscles. These observations were already known during the nineteenth century, although their cause remained unclear. Only after the discovery of radioactivity at the end of the nineteenth century did scientists begin to assume that the effects of the water might be related to the presence of radioactive elements.
Based on these findings, the town requested permission from Vienna to establish a spa facility. Physicians Dr. Jindřich Mache and Dr. Štěpán Mayer subsequently arrived in Jáchymov to verify the radioactivity of the springs and evaluate their therapeutic effects. On the basis of their report, the Imperial and Royal Ministry of Agriculture in Vienna instructed the district physician in Jáchymov, Dr. Leopold Gottlieb, to test the effects of the water from the Werner mine in his medical practice. In these experiments he cooperated with the chief mining administrator Ing. Josef Štěp, who strongly supported the idea of establishing spa facilities.
In 1906, Dr. Gottlieb therefore established two bathing cabins for radioactive baths in the house of the master baker Josef Kühn at today’s Náměstí Republiky No. 282. The water from the Werner mine was initially carried there in a mining basket by the retired miner Josef Prennig, nicknamed Donnerkeil. Due to the demonstrably positive effects, interest in the new spa rapidly increased, and as early as 1907 Prennig transported the water by horse-drawn wagon. Since the existing cabins soon proved insufficient, four additional bathing cabins were established in the building of the uranium paint factory.
In 1908 a new Ministry of Public Works was established in Vienna, under whose administration the Jáchymov mines were transferred. The medical supervision of the spa procedures was entrusted to the mining physician Dr. Adolf Langhans. At the same time, the ministry decided to build a pipeline to transport radioactive water for spa use. The pipeline was laid between the Werner and Svornost mines and then continued through the Daniel adit into the lower part of the town. The mouth of this adit is today located beneath the surface of a roundabout. The works were supervised by Ing. Josef Štěp. After the completion of the project, a photograph was taken of all participants involved in this important undertaking. The total length of the pipeline eventually exceeded four kilometres. Retention tanks with capacities of 625 and 1400 hectolitres were also constructed at the Werner mine.
In 1911 the first building designed exclusively for spa treatment in Jáchymov was constructed according to the plans of the court builder Zotter. It was the Imperial and Royal Radium Treatment Institute, today known as the Agricola Spa Centre. This was the first spa institute of its kind in the world. The so-called Štěp springs from the Werner mine were brought into the main hall of the building and used for drinking cures. In addition to baths, radium vapours were also inhaled here. New scientific discoveries also suggested that radium could be used in the treatment of cancer and other diseases that had previously been considered difficult to treat.
The growing interest of visitors soon led to the decision to construct a large spa hotel. In 1910 a joint-stock company led by Count Sylva-Taroucca began building a new hotel according to plans by Baron Gustav von Flesch-Brunningen. Construction was entrusted to the Viennese builder Burian. The building was erected on the site of the former coaching inn Ameisenhügel, known locally as “Na Mravenčím vršku”. The small bridge of the former imperial road that once passed around the Radium Palace has survived to the present day. A roadside shrine bearing the date 1731, which once stood nearby, is today located next to the town museum building.
The Radium Palace hotel was opened in 1912. Its construction cost thirteen million Austrian crowns and it was exceptionally modernly equipped for its time. Every room had both hot and cold running water, a telephone and an electric system for summoning the staff. Thanks to these innovations, the hotel ranked among the ten most luxurious hotels in Europe.
Between 1918 and 1919 an Institute for Radiation Therapy was established, and from 1924 the spa facilities were placed under state administration. Extensive terraces, the Forest Café and tennis courts were built only later, in 1929, by the hotelier Urban, who significantly contributed to the worldwide reputation of the Jáchymov spa.
Jáchymov was visited by many notable personalities. Among them was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who took an interest in the local mining industry and mineralogy. Other visitors included Alois Jirásek, Baron Rothschild, Richard Strauss, Max Švabinský and Eduard Bass. A particularly important visitor was the first president of Czechoslovakia, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, who visited Jáchymov seven times and celebrated his eightieth birthday here on 7 March 1930. His successor President Edvard Beneš also stayed here several times, in the years 1927, 1937 and 1947.
During the German occupation in the Second World War the Radium Palace became a branch of a Berlin hospital and a military lazaret was established there. At the same time Jáchymov was declared a Wehrmacht hospital town.
After the war it seemed that the spa would experience a new period of development. Distinguished physicians such as MUDr. František Žďárský and chief physician MUDr. Josef Slánský worked in Jáchymov and developed new therapeutic procedures using radon water. However, further development was significantly limited by the intensive uranium mining that followed. The Radium Palace was transformed into a recreation facility of the Revolutionary Trade Union Movement, while other spa buildings served as accommodation for workers of the Jáchymov mines.
A new phase of development began only in the 1960s. In 1963 Jáchymov received the official status of a spa town and on 1 January 1964 the Czechoslovak State Spa administration was established. In 1975 the Sanatorium of Academician František Běhounek was built above the spa zone according to a design by the architect A. Tenzer. At the same time other spa buildings were renovated, including Union, Lužice, Blaník, Dášenka and Dalibor. The development of the spa complex was completed in 1992 with the opening of the comprehensive Curie sanatorium.
Today the Jáchymov spa has approximately 1100 beds in a number of buildings including Radium Palace, Curie, Běhounek, Astoria, Dalibor, Jitřenka, Elektra, Praha, Lužice and Dagmar. Each year about 16,000 patients from all over the world undergo treatment here.
With the development of medical science the focus of treatment gradually changed. While in the early years various serious illnesses were treated here, including skin tuberculosis and certain cancer diseases, after 1945 such patients were transferred to specialised hospital facilities. The Jáchymov spa gradually specialised primarily in diseases of the musculoskeletal system.
Today the spa focuses mainly on disorders of the musculoskeletal system and metabolic diseases. Treatment includes degenerative diseases of joints and bones, inflammatory joint diseases, Bechterew’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, conditions following orthopaedic surgery and operations on the peripheral nervous system. Disorders of peripheral nerves, certain vascular diseases and selected metabolic disorders are also treated here.
The basis of treatment is radon water obtained in the Svornost mine from three springs – Běhounek, Curie and C-1 (Curie, Evangelista and Becquerel). The average radon content in spa baths is about 5000 Bq per litre, and the only modification of the water is heating by a counter-flow system.
In addition to radon baths, brachyradium therapy is used in strictly indicated cases. In this procedure radium radiation is applied directly from a very short distance. If the distance is greater, the treatment is referred to as telecurie therapy. Supporting therapeutic methods include electroacupuncture, heat therapy, mechanotherapy, magnetotherapy, massages and physical exercises in a swimming pool or gymnasium.
The device used for brachyradium therapy has the form of a double-walled tube placed in an application case and protected by a layer of plexiglass.
