The grand spas of Central Europe

David Clay Large

The grand spas of Central Europe' leads readers on an irresistible tour through the grand spa towns of Central Europe-fabled places like Baden-Baden, Bad Ems, Bad Gastein, Karlsbad, and Marienbad. Noted historian David Clay Large follows the grand spa story from Greco-Roman antiquity to the present, focusing especially on the years between the French Revolution and World War II, a period in which the major Central European Kurorte ("cure-towns") reached their peak of influence and then slipped into decline. Written with verve and affection, the book explores the grand spa towns, which in their prime were an equivalent of today's major medical centers, rehab retreats, golf resorts, conference complexes, fashion shows, music festivals, and sexual hideaways-all rolled into one. Conventional medicine being quite primitive through most of this era, people went to the spas in hopes of...