Back in the summer holidays, ‘bathhouses’ in Carinthia were places of southern lightness and relaxed enjoyment. Nowadays, the longing for restful relaxation away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life is more relevant than ever. The Millstatt Bathhouse offers the perfect stage for this.
The first known summer guest from Vienna, who travelled to Villach on the newly opened railway in 1869 and took a carriage from there, spent two weeks at Lake Millstätter See full of enthusiasm. He was not deterred from returning the following year in large company, even by the musty straw bed and the eternally identical menu (Sterz, milk, butter, potatoes, Talggn, fat bacon and brown bread). Well-kept inns and wooden lakeside baths were built and a few years later many hundreds of guests were already spending their summer holidays at the lake. The magic of the lake and the soothing southern climate have hardly changed over the centuries. And there is still a bathhouse on Lake Millstätter See where guests can store a sense of well-being for everyday life, ‘slightly’ more sophisticated than back then, but wonderfully relaxing.
Lake wellness right by the water combined with a unique view of the natural backdrop of Lake Millstätter See: the natural, relaxing power that only a lake can radiate is utilised all year round at the Millstatt Bathhouse.
The wellness trend (a portmanteau of ‘wellbeing’ and ‘fitness’) has its origins in the USA. It was an American doctor named Halbert L. Dunn who introduced it to the world in the late 1950s. But before the term and trend ‘wellness’ existed, there was spa treatment. This was done at least once a year, primarily by ladies, but also by many gentlemen of better standing and wealth.
Around 1870, the Millstatt Bathhouse had a men's cabin with 9 chambers and a women's compartment with 7 chambers. Ladies entered the lake wearing high-necked swimming costumes; older ladies bathed in closed cabins that protruded into the lake.
Quelle DA Mag. Friedrich Koller
