The urban transformations of the health resort in Lądek Zdrój before 1945

Elżbieta Trocka-Leszczyńska, Agnieszka Tomaszewicz

doi:10.5277/arc120105

Abstract

Lądek-Zdrój, the oldest Kłodzko spa, today consists of two parts, i.e. a historical town situated on the Biała Lądecka River bank and a spa situated on both sides of the river, which has a free park system with softly arranged roads adjusted to the natural environment with spa development dispersed in the surrounding green areas. The municipal part of Lądek Zdrój was granted the town charter in the 2nd half of the 13th century. At a similar time, at the foot of Świętojerskie Hill thermal springs were discovered near which a spa started to develop. At the end of the 16th century the functional system of the spa was already outlined and an apparently accidental arrangement of buildings, which was adapted to the natural form of the terrain, provided its normal functioning. After discovering next thermal springs called Fryderyk and Maria, in the second half of the 17th century the so called Nowy Zdrój (New Bath) was set up which was later changed into Maria’s Bath. A spatial arrangement of the spa development, which was a result of the planned and one-time construction action, is regarded as the earliest solution of this type that was realised in Silesia.     The minister of Silesia, Count von Hoym contributed to the further development of the spa in the middle of the 18th century. He was, inter alia, an initiator of land development  between baths where a spa house was built and the English park was established. In the 19th century the spa was still beautified and developed; the authorities of Lądek aimed at getting and integrating further lands which were adjacent to the thermal springs where parks were established and residential buildings were located. The present spatial layout of the spa is to a large extent a result of reorganisation of the area around Maria Bath that was conducted in the 1930s. The article presents in detail the particular stages of the history of urban transformations of the spa part of Lądek Zdrój.

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