Unesco’s World Heritage list just grew by adding a series of European spa towns to its roster of important places—including the town that gave the phenomenon its name, Spa, Belgium.
The committee cited the eleven towns as “the most fashionable, dynamic and international spa towns among the many hundreds that contributed to the European spa phenomenon.” Noting that all of them grew around mineral water sources and a desire for healthy surroundings, they all have their own distinctions.
Spa, seen in the image above, gained its fame early when Russian Tsar Peter the Great visited to take the cure, followed by enough European princes, aristocrats and plutocrats that less than a hundred years later the Austrian Emperor Joseph II called it “the cafe of Europe.”
The others joining it on the list include such well-known names as Vichy in France, Bath in England; Bad Ems, Bad Kissingen and Baden-Baden in Germany; Baden bei Wien in Austria and Montecatini Terme in Italy and a trio in the Czech Republic: Karlovy Vary, Frantiskovy Lazne and Marianske Lazne, known in Habsburg times as Carlsbad, Franzensbad and Marienbad.
Image: Spa in Belgium. Credit: Iain Cameron/Creative Commons
