by Mozartplatz is in the small town of Bad Gastein, an hour or so drive from his birthplace, Salzburg. The Mozart hotel, the Mozart bar and various other venues are named after Austria’s greatest composer. This is strange, since Mozart never visited. His mother did, however. After losing her first two children, her doctors advised her to take the medicine in the famous spa town of Bad Gastein – and later, she gave birth to little Wolfgang Amadeus. So, as they will surely tell you in Gastein, without them, there would be no Mozart at all. QED.
It was, of course, very common to take medicine in a spa town in the 18th century – but Bad Gastein’s offering was a little different from the rest. Spa towns are traditionally built around thermal waters, with a combination of heat and minerals that provide health benefits and pain relief. These waters are abundant in Bad Gastein (there are some 19 thermal springs here), but they have an unusual ingredient.
The thermal caves, intended for gold and silver since Roman times, had been idle for some time, when – in the 1940s – Hitler reopened them: and something strange happened. Instead of the exhaustion you’d expect from such a tough job, the miners emerged from the cave each day feeling better than when they entered. They even felt less stressed.
It turned out that, inside Rad Hausberg mountain, intense heat (37-41C) and humidity (75-100 percent) combined with radon to achieve extremely beneficial effects. Isn’t radon radioactive, you ask? Indeed, it is. However, in small quantities that you are exposed to here, it stimulates the cellular metabolism, reduces free radicals and activates healing, anti-inflammatory messengers.
The results from a three-week course of treatment are, on average, pain relief, anti-inflammatory effects, and even stress relief. All this from lying on a bed in the elegant, burning cave called the Gasteiner Heillstollen (healing tunnel) and always perspiring for an hour.
Mozart’s mother would not have gone inside the mountain, of course. She would be soaked in the celebrated waters, carried in wooden pipes to wooden tubs, for a treatment called balneology (bathing therapy). She wouldn’t be alone. The Archbishop of Salzburg took the cure, as did Otto von Bismarck. Tsars, kings, the Holy Roman Emperor, Francis II, Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) of Austria all flocked here and, of course, needed somewhere to stay.
The result is a town with a population of just 4,000 people that only had the first train station ever in the Alps (opened by Emperor Franz Joseph in 1905), also disdained the rural architecture of Austria that you will find around the mountains. In fact, Bad Gastein looks more like Salzburg or the Ringstrasse. No rustic wooden balconies here – just plenty of porticoes and pillars, crystal chandeliers, and lots and lots of marble.
As word spread, it wasn’t just royalty who visited. Later, Schubert came (he later composed the Gasteiner sonata for “the most intense landscape I have ever seen”). Thomas Mann, Einstein, Churchill and the Roosevelts came. After hearing from Sigmund Freud that the medicine had the advantage of increasing male virility (he also liked the idea of watery orgies taking place in the public baths), he enjoyed two-month periods.
The Shah of Iran had plans to buy up the whole place. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle went and, inspired by the unusual waterfall that crashed through the center of town, came up with the Reichenbach Falls as a way to get rid of Sherlock Holmes and his arch-nemesis Moriarty.
In recent years, the thermal waters and caves have become popular again. This is partly due to the fact that the medicine is now recognized – and often funded by – the German and Austrian health authorities for about 10,000 people per year. The sheer quirkiness of the town continues to draw, too.
Over the years everyone from Shirley Bassey to Ludwig Wittgenstein, Gustav Klimt to Bruce Willis, and Marlene Dietrich to U2 have made their pilgrimage. Wes Anderson was suggested to look at the town’s Grand Hotel de l’Europe as inspiration for his Grand Budapest Hotel, and Hugh Grant is a regular visitor. He calls him Dea Gastein. That sounds right.
Fundamentals
The Bismarck Hotel in nearby Bad Hofgastein has double rooms, including all meals, from £294 per night. It has its own spa with filtered (non-Radon) thermal waters in the pool and Radon baths using unfiltered thermal water.
Easyjet (easyjet.com) flies twice a week from London Gatwick to Salzburg from £67 return.
Anna Selby was a guest of SalzburgerLand (salzburgerLand.com) and Gastein (gastein.com)
