Top 5 Resorts of the 19th century

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Deauville, Cote d'Azur, Baden-Baden and many other resorts attracted tourists not only with healing springs, but also with gambling entertainment.

Deauville

An elite seaside resort, "the queen of the Normandy beaches" is located on the coast of the English Channel. The idea to transform a poor fishing village into a holiday destination belongs to the half-brother of Napoleon III, Duke Charles de Morny. Visiting Trouville in 1850, the Duke unexpectedly discovered the picturesque landscapes of the neighboring Deauville.

Beach at Deauville. Source: wikimedia.org

De Morny bought 2.5 sq. km of coastal lands and took up their arrangement. The money for the construction of the resort was provided by the philanthropist and banker, Prince Anatoly Demidov. The first guests were lured to the Norman coast with stories of the health benefits of the local climate.

The resort became famous due to the visits of Napoleon III, members of the imperial court and the richest representatives of the bourgeoisie. Demand for Deauville land grew steadily, especially after the opening of the Trouville railway station in 1863. And the casino built a year later became another reason to relax in Deauville.

Bad Ems

Bad Ems is the second most important thermal spa in West Germany. There are 17 thermal springs here, whose waters help with asthma, bronchitis, stomach diseases and allergies.

In the 19th century, two imperial courts of Europe - Prussian and Russian - chose this resort for relaxation and treatment. Bad Ems was regularly visited by the Prussian Emperor Wilhelm I and his entourage, which made the resort the center of political life in Europe. From here, by order of the emperor, the famous "Ems dispatch" was sent to Bismarck, in which the results of negotiations with France were reported. Bismarck published its distorted text in the general press, which led first to a diplomatic scandal, and then to the war with France in 1870.

Bad Ems, postcard from 1900. Source: wikimedia.org

As for the guests from the Russian Empire, numerous representatives of the St. Petersburg nobility began to come to this resort since the 1820s. Later, Russian artists, writers and poets began to visit Bad Ems. Gogol, Turgenev, Tyutchev, Dostoevsky have been here.

Bad Ems on an engraving from 1655. Source: wikimedia.org

Russian Emperor Alexander II also visited the waters. For the first time he came here, while still being the heir to the throne with his tutor - the poet Vasily Zhukovsky. Then the emperor visited the resort with his wife Maria Alexandrovna. In 1876, the Russian Emperor signed the Emsky decree here on the restriction of the use of the Ukrainian language on the territory of the Russian Empire.

Karlovy Vary

As legend has it, a hot healing spring was discovered here by the King of Bohemia and the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Charles IV during a hunt. A pack of hounds of the emperor pursued a beautiful deer, wounded by Charles's spear. The deer was already exhausted and, it seemed, was almost in the hands of the hunters, but then a miracle happened: having plunged into a small lake covered with steam, it seemed to have gained new strength and easily left the pursuers.

The shocked emperor tasted the miraculous warm water and ordered the founding of a city here, later named after him, where he and his courtiers could improve their health. So, according to popular legends, in 1358 Charles IV founded the city of Karlovy Vary.

In 1370 the resort received royal privileges and soon gained wide popularity. The aristocracy of all Europe flocked to Karlovy Vary: the Russian Tsar Peter the Great, the Polish King Augustus, the Prussian King Frederick II, the Emperor Charles VI and other crowned persons.

Famous writers, musicians, scientists and philosophers have visited this resort. Ancient houses and streets remember Goethe, Schiller, Gogol, Mitskevich, Neruda, Turgenev, Alexei Tolstoy, Goncharov, Bach, Paganini, Chopin, Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Brahms, Liszt, Schliemann and many others.

Karlovy Vary. Source: wikimedia.org

The Karlovy Vary spa treatment until the end of the 16th century consisted mainly of bath procedures. The use of the drinking procedure at Vrzhidla began at the initiative of the physician Vaclav Paer, who in 1522 published the first special book on Karlovy Vary treatment in Lipsk. In it, he recommended the use of healing water against the background of bath procedures.

Doctor David Becher made a great contribution to the development of local balneology. In addition to direct participation in the construction of the resort, he systematized and scientifically substantiated the main methods of treatment: the balance of drinking procedures and taking baths, the use of walks as an integral part of the health complex. In the 19th century, his ideas were developed by such doctors as Jean de Carro, Rudolph Manl, Eduard Glavachek.

From the second half of the 19th century, under the influence of the general European processes caused by the French Revolution, the composition of the resort's visitors began to change. More and more rich bourgeois clientele visits him, the nobility disappears. The city becomes the center of political life: meetings of politicians and diplomats begin here.

In 1819, "Vrzidl" hosted a significant conference of ministers of European countries, chaired by Chancellor Metternich. The year 1844 is considered an important moment in the history of the city, from which a significant export of spring water began.

The late 19th - early 20th centuries are called the golden age of Karlovy Vary. A railway connection was established with Cheb, Prague, Marianske Lazne, Johangeorgenstad and Merklin. New treatments have also been discovered.

Baden Baden

The history of the spa town of Baden-Baden goes back more than two millennia. Roman historical chronicles indicate that as early as 214, the baths of the emperor Caracalla were located on its territory.

At the end of the 11th century, the sovereign Swabian family of Zehringer settled in this area. The princes founded a fortress on Mount Buttert and began to be called Margraves of Baden, that is, the rulers of the Baden principality.

At the end of the 14th century, the Margraves of Baden built the "New Castle" and moved their summer residence there. From the top of the Florentine mountain, on which the castle is located, a view of the old city opens, and at its foot there are 23 mineral springs. The temperature of the healing water in some places reaches 68 degrees.

Catherine the Great married the grandson of Alexander Pavlovich, heir to the throne, to the Baden princess Louise, who took the name Elizabeth during her Orthodox baptism. This marriage marked the beginning of contacts between Baden and Russia.

Emperor Alexander I visited Baden-Baden with his wife. Frequent guests here were the princes Gagarins, Volkonsky, Vyazemsky, Trubetskoy, as well as the writers Gogol, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Dostoevsky. The latter lost everything he had at roulette in Baden-Baden, and when he returned to Russia, he wrote the novel The Gambler.

Baden-Baden on a 1900 postcard. Source: wikimedia.org

The growing popularity of the resort in the 19th century is associated with the casino, which was called one of the most beautiful in the world. Jacques Benazet, who bought it, built a gas factory and helped finance the railway line between Paris and Strasbourg, which is literally 30 kilometers from Baden-Baden, in order to attract additional customers.

In Baden-Baden, balls and concerts were held several times a week, at which Paganini, Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Johann Strauss, Franz Liszt performed. Benazet lured all Parisian bohemians to Baden-Baden: writers and courtesans, diplomats and officials, the rich and aristocrats. For 10 years he turned the city into the “summer capital of Europe”. By the middle of the 19th century, Baden-Baden was visited by up to 60 thousand guests every summer, of which at least 5 thousand were from the Russian Empire.

Baden-Baden on a 19th century engraving. Source: wikimedia.org

Many eminent guests have acquired their own houses in Baden-Baden, such as Clara Schumann, Pauline Viardot, Ivan Turgenev, Count Neselrode, Prince Sergei Sergeevich Gagarin. Others preferred to rent private apartments, such as Dostoevsky or Brahms. Most of the guests stayed at one of the many hotels.

In the building where the city administration is today, the Darmstäter Hof was located in the 19th century. Gogol lived there in 1836. In a letter to his mother, Nikolai Vasilyevich shared his observations: “There is no one here who would be seriously ill. Everyone comes here to have fun … Almost no one stays at their hotel, the audience sits all day at small tables under the trees."

The hotel "Goldisher Hof" (Dutch yard) was chosen in 1857 by Leo Tolstoy. He, like Dostoevsky, loved to play roulette in his youth and spent all his money here. It was then that he wrote in his diary: "In this city - all the villains, but the biggest of them is me."

Turgenev, in turn, was indifferent to gambling. He had another reason to often come to Baden-Baden: his muse, the French singer Pauline Viardot, lived here. In total, Turgenev lived here for almost ten years and often described resort life in his novels.

French Riviera

The Côte d'Azur is the southeastern Mediterranean coast of France, stretching from Toulon to the border with Italy. The name was invented by the French writer and poet Stéphane Liéjart - in 1870 he published a novel called Cote d'Azur. These words came to his mind when he saw the "amazingly beautiful" bay of the city of Hyères.

Cote d'Azur. Source: wikimedia.org

In the middle of the 19th century, when railways began to connect the regions of Provence, the life of this region began to change dramatically. The history of the Cote d'Azur as a resort began largely thanks to the English and Russian aristocracy. In 1834, the English Lord Henry Brouchem was forced to stay in the fishing village of Cannes.

Since that time, the coast has become a favorite winter vacation spot for the English nobility. Originally a Mecca for British tourists was the city of Hyères, where writers Robert Louis Stevenson and Joseph Conrad worked; in the spring of 1892, Queen Victoria rested in Hyères for a month. The influx of tourists forced the British to look for less crowded places to stay; by the end of the 19th century, other coastal villages were also "discovered" - up to Menton and Nice.

After the defeat in the Crimean War, Alexander II was forced to look for a new port for the fleet. It was the town of Villefranche-sur-Mer, located six kilometers from Nice. It attracted not only sailors, but also writers, merchants-merchants and, of course, the Russian nobility.

Aristocrats from Russia built beautiful houses here, many of which are still widely known outside of France.

Cote d'Azur. Source: wikimedia.org

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, having met a lot of acquaintances upon his arrival in Nice, called these places “Russian Riviera”. As a joke, of course. The joke took root and has survived to this day. Chekhov lived in the Russian boarding house "Oasis", where he wrote part of his "Three Sisters".

Gogol, Sologub, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Lev Tolstoy, Nabokov have been here. For a long time - until his death - Nobel laureate Ivan Bunin lived and wrote his works here.

Before the First World War, the Cote d'Azur was the largest center for the treatment of tuberculosis. Patients suffering from diabetes or obesity, as well as people with disorders of the nervous system, also came here.