Spa Infrastructure

In some of the component parts early spa hospital buildings survive, including several in the City of Bath, where the Mineral Water Hospital is of world importance because of its role in pioneering the discipline of diagnostic medicine.

Vichy was one of the first French spa towns to introduce special baths for the poor.

Funiculars can be found in several towns, accessing the higher ground where lookout towers, restaurants and monuments, castle ruins etc were attractive destinations.

Railways were extended to all component parts and some (Bath, Baden bei Wien and Baden-Baden) had some of the earliest connections in the 1840s. Railways were the main transport means from more than a century, often for international guests. Railway stations are an important feature of the urban ensemble and provided the first impressions of the town, and therefore high standards of architecture were often demanded.

Bad Kissingen provides several exceptional examples of spa infrastructure – including salt production sites, brine pumping infrastructure, bottled mineral water warehouse, an abattoir designed as a basilica to disguise its industrial appearance, and a steamboat line.