This month, we highlight a 1907 brochure entreating tourists to visit Kissingen (now Bad Kissingen), Germany. Bad Kissingen was a renowned spa town with an extensive bath complex that attracted visitors seeking relaxation, socialization, and healthcare. The exterior panels of the brochure portray a panoramic view of the town, with smaller images featuring the region’s claims to fame of the time- among them the Botenlauben Castle, Kurtheater, and Wandelhalle spa garden. The interior panels of the brochure display text advertising a “romantic valley... amidst thickly wooded hills” with a moderate temperature and fresh air that drew 37,411 visitors in 1906. At the time of the brochure’s publication, Bad Kissingen offered 387 baths across several natural mineral springs. The waters contained salt and carbonic acid, which they marketed as alleviating any medical problem under the sun- promising relief for afflictions of the gastrointestinal, circulatory, respiratory, reproductive, and nervous systems through ingesting or bathing in the waters. Today, Bad Kissingen is one of eleven historic spa towns recognized collectively as a transnational UNESCO World Heritage Site.
One of their peer spa towns is the appropriately named Bath, England. Legend has it that the mythical Prince Bladud, future king of Britain and father of King Lear, was healed from his leprosy after bathing in hot springs and founded the city around them to honor his cure. When England fell under Roman rule, the Romans built expansive thermae, or bath houses, over the springs, where people gathered for leisure and healing. Centuries later, in 1562, Dr. William Turner published , in which he claimed that the baths could heal any conditions associated with phlegm, one of the four humors, because they would balance the body with their drying and warming properties. Like Bad Kissingen, Bath drew visitors seeking medical care, a practice now called “health tourism.”
The phenomenon of health tourism was around long before Bad Kissingen or Bath became popular destinations. One of the earliest examples was in ancient Greece, when ailing people from across the Mediterranean would make pilgrimages to asklepieia, sanctuaries honoring the demigod of medicine, Asklepios. The myth tells us that Asklepios was raised by his father, Apollo, who taught him about the healing powers of plants. Asklepios used his knowledge to heal people and even raise them from the dead, until he was killed by Zeus, who feared that humans would become immortal and no different from the gods. Visitors at asklepieia would be purified and then enter the enkoimeterion, a room for sleeping where Asklepios could visit them in their dreams and heal or advise them. Among the alleged divine interventions performed were several cases of blind people who awoke with their vision restored, and a woman who had been pregnant for five years who suddenly gave birth to a child who could already walk.
The United States also welcomed health tourism, with medical resorts known as “sanitariums,” emerging in the 1800s. One famous example was Michigan’s Battle Creek Sanitarium, opened by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (yes, that Kellogg, of Corn Flake) in 1867. “The San,” as it was nicknamed, hosted many celebrity guests in its day, including Thomas Edison, Booker T. Washington, Sojourner Truth, and Amelia Earhart. The extravagant facility could house up to 1,200 patients and contained a theatre, stables, an indoor palm garden, and a ballroom with a full-time orchestra. However, the San was not simply a hotel, but a treatment center first and foremost, with Kellogg performing surgeries and implementing specific dietary modifications. Like the physicians of Europe’s spa towns, he strongly believed in the medical applications of water. He prescribed his patients enemas, increased quantities of drinking water, and hydrotherapy at the San’s own complex of hundreds of baths.
The growth of sanitariums was especially expedited by the “white plague”- tuberculosis. Sanitariums were a refuge for the wealthy to recover from tuberculosis away from the stressors of daily life. These included Seaview Hospital in Staten Island, Cragmor Sanitarium in Colorado Springs, and the Desert Sanitarium in Tucson, each based on different theories about how tuberculosis could best be cured- from the ocean air, solar radiation, and cold, dry air respectively.
Today, health tourism can still be observed all around us- from spas (the word based on the Latin phrase ‘sanus per aquam,’ meaning ‘health through waters’) and retreats, to traveling abroad to see specialists or receive more affordable healthcare. Bad Kissingen remains a tourist hub for those seeking mental and physical wellness from the waters.
Bibliography
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- “Bath’s Spa Heritage.” n.d. Visit Bath. Accessed July 15, 2025.
- Cartwright, Mark. 2013. “Asclepius.” World History Encyclopedia. June 20, 2013.
- Gianfaldoni, Serena, Georgi Tchernev, Uwe Wollina, Maria Grazia Roccia, Massimo Fioranelli, Roberto Gianfaldoni, and Torello Lotti. 2017. “History of the Baths and Thermal Medicine.” Open Access Macedonian Journal of Medical Sciences 5 (4): 566–68.
- Grahn, Anya. 2015a. “Tuberculosis Sanitariums: Reminders of the White Plague | National Trust for Historic Preservation.” National Trust for Historic Preservation. August 6, 2015.
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- Gregory, Alice. 2018. “In Search of Lost Time in Europe’s Sanatoriums.” The New York Times, February 18, 2018, sec. T Magazine.
- Little, Becky. 2024. “Honey Enemas and Healing Dreams: Inside the World of Ancient Medical Tourism.” National Geographic. August 12, 2024.
- Markel, Howard. 2017. “How Dr. Kellogg’s World-Renowned Health Spa Made Him a Wellness Titan.” PBS News. August 18, 2017.
- Rolls, Roger. n.d. “Did the Bath Waters Really Cure Patients?” Bath Medical Museum. Accessed July 15, 2025.
- “The Great Spa Towns of Europe.” n.d. UNESCO World Heritage Centre.
- Voudouris, K, C Yapijakis, M-N Georgaki, and A-N Angelakis. 2022. “Historical Issues of Hydrotherapy in Thermal–Mineral Springs of the Hellenic World.” Sustainable Water Resources Management 9 (1).