🏛 tradition
Rene L. Diaz · Hydrogeologist · 2026-07-23
Walk through the colonnade of Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic in the early morning and you will see people moving slowly between ornate pavilions, each holding a ceramic cup with a long curved spout. They pause at a fountain, fill the cup with water that arrives at around 60°C from one of the town's twelve springs, and drink it in small sips as they stroll. This is the Trinkkur — the drinking cure — and it has been practiced here, and at dozens of similar towns across Europe, for more than five hundred years.
A drinking cure (Trinkkur in German, cure de boisson in French, cura de bebida in Spanish) is the practice of drinking mineral spring water directly at its source, typically in small quantities over a sustained period — a glass in the morning, another before lunch, a third in the evening — as part of a structured stay at a spa town.
The logic, as understood historically, was that different mineral compositions had different effects on the body when consumed, and that the ritual of drinking at the spring, in a particular order, at particular temperatures, was itself part of the treatment. The European spa towns that developed around this tradition built elaborate infrastructure to support it: enclosed colonnades to protect visitors from rain and cold, ceramic drinking cups designed for slow sipping from hot water, resident physicians who would prescribe specific springs based on the visitor's ailment, and social calendars that turned the morning promenade into a ritual.
Known in German as Karlsbad, Karlovy Vary is the paradigmatic drinking-cure destination. Its twelve main springs range in temperature from about 40°C to over 70°C and contain bicarbonate, sodium, sulfate, and trace minerals including fluoride. Visitors today still follow the morning promenade route through the colonnade with a lázeňský pohár (spa cup) purchased from local shops.
Famous historical visitors to the drinking cure at Karlovy Vary include Peter the Great (who is said to have visited four times), Goethe, Beethoven, and Chopin. The town's cure tradition was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2021 as part of the "Great Spa Towns of Europe" recognition.
Vichy's springs have been in use since Roman times. The town rose to prominence in the eighteenth century as the preferred cure destination of the French court, and its Source des Célestins remains the best-known drinking spring — the Célestins mineral water is still bottled commercially under that name. The covered hall above the Grandes Sources allows visitors to taste water from several springs side by side, each with a distinct mineral profile and temperature.
The Kochbrunnen (Cooking Spring) at Wiesbaden is one of the hottest and most sodium-rich drinking springs in the German tradition. Water arrives at around 66°C. The tradition here is simpler than at Karlovy Vary: no colonnade promenade, but a dedicated drinking pavilion with ceramic cups available for visitors. Wiesbaden was part of the same UNESCO "Great Spa Towns of Europe" recognition.
Montecatini Terme, in Tuscany, developed around a group of springs with a distinctly sulfate-rich profile. The town's rationalist Terme Tettuccio building — designed in the early twentieth century with grand mosaic-tiled pools and a monumental portico — is less a bathing facility than a drinking hall. Visitors buy a subscription to the bibite (drink) sessions and come in the morning to drink the waters from elegant fountains arranged around the central courtyard. The building itself is one of the most architecturally ambitious drinking-cure spaces ever built.
At its most developed, the drinking cure was a stay of several weeks, not a day trip. The resident physician would assess the visitor and prescribe a daily regimen: which spring, how many glasses, at what temperature, and at what time relative to meals. Water taken at spring temperature — often hot — was thought to have different effects than the same water cooled.
What survived the twentieth century is a compressed, visitor-friendly version: a morning walk to the spring, a cup or two of water, and the pleasure of the colonnade as a social space. Many spa towns sell their historic ceramic cups as keepsakes. The physician prescription is now optional rather than central, and most visitors drink the water out of curiosity and for the cultural experience rather than following a formal treatment protocol.
Mineral spring water at the source tastes nothing like the neutral bottled mineral water on a supermarket shelf. Bicarbonate-rich waters from Karlovy Vary have a slightly alkaline, softly effervescent quality. The Wiesbaden Kochbrunnen tastes intensely salty — it contains roughly the same sodium concentration as seawater. Sulfate-rich waters from Montecatini have a faintly bitter mineral edge. The first sip often surprises visitors who expect spring water to resemble commercial mineral water; these are geochemical solutions with real mineral presence, not filtered groundwater.
The temperature adds another dimension. Drinking water at 50 or 60°C requires slow, deliberate sipping. The spa cup with its long spout exists precisely to allow the water to cool slightly in transit.
This guide describes a historical and cultural practice — the European spa town tradition of drinking mineral spring water as part of a structured wellness stay. It does not constitute medical advice or make any claim about health outcomes. The historical tradition attributed various therapeutic effects to drinking cures; those claims belong to the cultural history of these places, not to modern medical evidence. Before drinking mineral spring water in any quantity, especially at high temperatures, visitors with cardiovascular conditions, kidney disease, or other health conditions should consult a qualified physician.