Taking the waters : spirit, art, sensuality by Croutier Alev Lytle 1944-

Author:Croutier, Alev Lytle, 1944-
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bathing customs, Baths, Health resorts, Water, Water in art, Baden (hygiëne), Badhuizen, Badplaatsen (geneeskunde), Waterbronnen, Balneology, Health Resorts, Medicine in Art, Water, Wasser, Kult, Geschichte, Bad, Badeort, Künste, Hygiene
Publisher: New York : Abbeville Press
Published: 1992-03-05T16:00:00+00:00

Poster, Baden-Baden, Germany.

and there composed his swan song, the opera Beatrice and Benedict. Delacroix also spent summers takmg the waters and sketching the Oos Valley, where Baden-Baden is nesded. Turgenev wrote in the peace of the valley, as did Dumas fils. Stendhal. Balzac, and George Sand. Fyodor Dostoyevsky and his wife, Anna, spent four years in Baden-Baden and other European spas to satisfy his gambling obsession.

During World War II. Baden-Baden not only was untouched by bombing but also became more exclusive than ever before. Hider. who was desperate for foreign currency, encouraged the casino's operation, although he himself never visited the town. When the residents discovered that the invading French were planning to attack the spa. they invited them to occupy It peacefully. After the war Baden-Baden became a convalescent center for wounded German officers.

Baden-Baden continues to thrive as an elegant spa. perhaps the most elegant in Europe. I had the privilege of visiting it a few times, a treat indeed, and of staying at the Brenner's Park Hotel."which was built in 1832, a sumptuous palace near the Black Forest, graciously civilized, glowing with the spirit of the past. It is easy to imagine oneself in another time while strolling down an avenue in the adjacent Lichtentaller Allee. a lush, verdant

130 ^^ DaAin^ i/ie Wa/ers

park with a creek gurgling through it. Or walking in the rain, protected by enormous magnolias, catalpas, lindens, ginkoes, and silver maples—some of them more than a century old, digging their octopuslike arms into the earth and sproutmg again. Fronting the AUee are century-old villas surrounded by glorious gardens and lawns with dozens of varieties of rhododendrons and azaleas bursting into vivid bloom. A rose garden boasts some 350 classical varieties planted for their beauty and fragrance, the subtle intoxication of which contributes even more to one's sense of well-being. 1 went from rose to rose, smelling each, reading the names of the people who planted them, and realizing this is what is meant by stopping to smell the roses. I imagined Russian princes driving troikas of white horses down the tree-lmed avenues and sensed the ghost of Edward Vll wandering among the rose hedges behind the smooth clay tennis courts—Edward had in fact been seen strolling here, dressed as a ghost for a play. I even imagined a criminal lurking behind the dense linden trees, waiting to assassinate a king. I felt transported to the age when Old World royalty came here to enjoy the same kind of pampering I did while taking the waters.

One of the greatest treasures of Baden-Baden undoubtedly is Fried-richsbad, a splendid Roman-Irish bathhouse built in 1869-77 over the rums of the original Roman baths, where bathing is as much a tradition today as it was two thousand years ago.

The experience of Friedrichsbad resembles a unique treasure hunt that lasts at least two hours and takes you through a maze of rooms opulently appointed with marble floors, painted tiles, cupolas, colonnades, and frescoed walls. It still maintains the tef^idarium, caldanum, and fngidariiim of the ancient Roman baths.

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