Therme Zurzach

Therme Zurzach sits in the small Aargau town of Bad Zurzach on the Rhine, where a salt-drilling operation accidentally struck a natural thermal spring in 1914. After the original well was capped, a new one was successfully drilled and reopened on September 5, 1955, tapping salt-bearing thermal water from roughly 1,000 meters below ground at around 40°C. The discovery turned Bad Zurzach into one of Switzerland's significant thermal spa towns almost overnight, and from 1957 the mineral-rich water was even bottled and sold as a beverage across the country. Today the spring feeds an indoor and outdoor bathing complex, hotels, and a rehabilitation clinic, with the tower hotel designed by architect Fedor Altherr in 1964 still marking the skyline.