Over on Twitter, author Delilah S. Dawson asked a research question and tagged me in it, probably because I read about weird stuff. Anyway, while I didn't know the exact answer to to her question (and it looks like plenty of helpful people did) I decided to come over here and write up a post about something her question made me think of: The Jáchymov Spa, or the world's first radon spa, opened in 1906.
Now, as it turns out, the particular town where this place is located has a long, interested, and storied history. I first ran across this town when I was reading this book, and since then, I've just been unable to forget about it.
(Note: I'm going to summarize some of what I read in the aforementioned book. It's been a few years, so some of the details might be a bit fluid so I gloss over them, though the general thrust of events is correct.)
So, let's get started.
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| Jàchymov Spa circa 1920s, image from this website. |
Brief Background
Located in the Ore Mountains near the border between the Czech Republic and Germany in the Karlovy Vary District, currently this town has about 2,400 inhabitants. Though, in antiquity it was one town in a country called Boiki, subsequently known as Bohemia. After changing hands through the rise and fall of many empires and invasions, in the 1300s the House of Luxembourg came to power and began exploiting the region, taking over the infamous silver mines of Kunta Horá.
However, Jáchymov had a rich silver mining history as well, and so in 1534 due to its rich silver mines, it became the second most populous town in the Kingdom of Bohemia. In fact, the silver for the Joachimsthaler coin was mined here. They became known to the Germans as the "Thaler" which then became known to the Dutch as "daalder" or "daler" and thus, we have the genesis of the word "dollar".
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| Kingdom of Bohemia, 1525 coin from wiki commons |
Svornost Mine
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| Silver mining, Jàchymov, 1548, wiki commons |
In 1525, the nearby Svornost mine became the first, and likely the only place in the world where both silver and uranium were mined. Now, the way it was roughly explained in the book Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World is that people mining for silver in the Svornost Mine would run into these rocks at the end of a seam of silver. They weren't silver. They kind of had a rainbow hue to them, and they didn't know what to do with them, so they'd basically load them on a cart and chuck them into the woods.
As it happens, this rock they were chucking into the woods was actually the mineral pitchblende, a certain kind of uranium. The industry in the area eventually learned how lucrative this stuff was, and so uranium glass and dyes began to be made. The economy boomed. In addition to uranium and silver, nickel and bismuth were also mined there.
According to Wikipedia, "In the 19th century the town was also the location of a Court, and of an administrative office for mines and iron production. Mining was still significant in the period. It was run partially by state-owned and partly by privately owned companies. In addition to silver ore, nickel, bismuth, and uranium ore were also extracted. There were other industries: an enormous tobacco factory employed 1,000 women. In addition, there was the manufacture of gloves and corks and of bobbin lace. On 31 March 1873, the town was almost entirely burnt down."
Marie Curie
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| Marie Curie, wikipedia |
"In a report describing a new substance, Marie and Pierre Curie noted, on 26 December 1898: "This radioactive substance contains a large proportion of barium; despite this, the radioactivity is considerable. The radioactivity of radium must therefore be huge". The finding came as part of their studies into the mineral ore pitchblende (now known as uraninite), from which they had discovered polonium just a few months before. The substance contained a new element; chemically very close to barium, it glowed with a faint blue light, which earns it the name radium from the Latin 'radius' that means ray." (from this article)
Back to that book, Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World (Note: It's been a few years since I've read this so the details are a bit foggy. I have the general thrust of events, but I'm glossing over niggling points that I know I won't get right. I suggest reading the book.). When Marie Curie was studying radiation, she knew she needed a whole lot of this pitchblende rock, and she needed to get it on the cheap. So she sent around feelers, asking if anyone basically had some pitchblende they wanted to sell her and not charge an arm and a leg for it. She ended up hearing about this town in Bohemia, where they had this huge uranium dump site in the forest from years of mining silver and the like. She asked if they'd be willing to sell her any of this stuff on the cheap and the people in town were all, "Hell, we've got a forest of this crap. You can take as much as you want, you just have to pay for the wagon to haul it away."
So she did. She got two wagons (I think, I can't remember exactly) and sent them out there from Paris, loaded them full of this dumped uranium pitchblende that had been left out there over all these generations, and brought it back to Paris, where she locked it in a garage and studied it.
When the Curie's studies on radioactivity started making waves, specifically some of the first (exciting) health implications of this stuff, the town of Jáchymov realized they had something pretty cool on their hands. Soon, radium became hailed as this incredible health elixir. It could cure anything and everything, from arthritis to cancer, prolong your life and more. Entrepreneurs who saw money in this discovery started selling radon water, and it was added to everyday items like coffee, beer, face cream.
"It was also used as a treatment for male impotence--through the careful, and presumably eye-watering, insertion of radioactive wax rods (bougies) into the urethra-- and was even added to chicken feed to try to obtain self-incubating eggs." (this article)
The recent runaway bestseller The Radium Girls also talks about how radon was used to make watches and clocks glow.
In 1906, capitalizing on a new and growing wave of radon excitement (Marie Curie had done some interesting stuff with radon-rich water from a paint factory in Jáchymov at this point), with the added benefit of having been the town to sell Marie Curie all her uranium, the world's very first radon spa opened.
The Jáchymov Spa
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| Hotel Radium Palace, image from this website |
At first, there were private baths, rather than a spa, and people in the know would travel from all around to sit in these baths. Then, however, with Marie Curie's uranium purchase and science evolving to understand just what this stuff is and local experience with radon-rich water easing things like arthritic joints, the world's first radon spa was created in 1906.
"The conversion of Jáchymov to the hot spring town coincided with the epidemic of all radioactive materials in the early 20th century. A study by Marie Curie, who first separated polonium and radium while studying wastewater from a Jáchymov paint factory, showed that radiation destroys cancer cells. And that's why radon and radium were considered cures-all future medicines, leading to all kinds of experimental radiotherapy. A radon fountain was set up at the spa resort in Jáchymov, allowing visitors to buy and drink from the so-called "Pocket Jáchymov", a container filled with radium salt." (this article)
In 1911, Spa Agricola was opened, where radon water would be pumped via a pipeline into the spa for people to enjoy. According to this website, "The remarkable healing effects induced the idea of building the Radium Kurhaus Spa Hotel - today known as the Radium Palace - which was opened in 1912 and belonged to one of the best hotels in Europe in its time. Celebrities of political, industrial and cultural life used to come here for treatment."
"For the first few years, the Radium Palace welcomed Egyptian Fuad I and composer Richard Strauss. Tomáš Masaryk Masarik, the first president of Czechoslovakia, also had a positive visitor on his 80th birthday at the hotel. The hotel boasts beautiful 1920s interiors, including a "Winter Garden" porch café and Art Nouveau bar." (this article)
Originally the radon water was used for drinking cures, and later converted to baths, and even a pool was built. According to numerous websites, "The water in Miraculous Spring is good for healing damaged joints, muscles and nerves due to its high radon content. Jáchymov's spa works to pump radon water directly from svornost mine into the building. It is also the only spa that has its own miners."
If you're wondering if you can still travel there to get radon treatments, the answer is yes. The following few quotes (as well as the one just above this paragraph) are from this article and I'm just copying it right over.
"For the radon bath, we use a stainless steel tub that is slowly filled with radon water from bottom to top to prevent whirlwinds, limiting the amount of radon gas that leaks from the tub. Enter 36 degrees of water. Each patient performs such treatment six times a week, so every day except Sunday, which is a rest day.
"In addition to the radon bath, spa guests can try the so-called "Yahimovsketrubichky" procedure, in which a box filled with radon salt is placed on the body to reduce inflammation. For visitors who are anxious to try treatments containing radioactive particles, Jáchymov's spa offers the usual choice of traditional rehabilitation and spa therapy.
According to Wikipedia, radon spas that are currently part of town are as follows:
- Aquacentrum Agricola - the first spa building in town from 1911, now the only year-round water part in the Ore Mountains.
- Radium Palace - spa neoclassical hotel palace, already at the time of its establishment in 1912 was one of the best Europe could offer in the field of spas.
- Hotel Bêhounek - spa building from 1975, with six above-ground and three underground floors, it is an unmissable dominant feature over the Jáchymov Valley.
- Hotel Praha - originally built as a factory for puppets and Woden toys in 1894, rebuilt in 1922 for the needs of a new spa.
- Komplex Curie - a modern panel building opened in 1992
- Hotel Astoria - created by merging three buildings built in 1913-1926
- Radiological Pavilion (Examination Institute) - medical background of the spa, there are surgeries and laboratories.
World War II and the Soviet Era
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| Soviet POW camp, originally for German soldiers. From this website. |
So, things really started booming, and then the area was annexed by Germany in 1938, and that pretty much stuck a fork in the local radon spa industry. With the outbreak of war and then the use of the first atomic bomb, the area became strategically important, and both the Germans and the Soviets wanted access to the uranium that it offered.
Then, after World War II, the area fell under the so-called Iron Curtain. According to this website, "In 2015, the 232 stairs and fenced corridor connecting the Svornost mine with the nearby infamous concentration camp were restored and replicas of original watch towers were constructed in their vicinity to commemorate the fate of 700 mostly political prisoners who had been detained in the camp and had been forced to work in the Svornost uranium mine in the early 1950s under the Communist regime."
The area's reputation sank, as you could imagine. Gone were the days of health restoration and spas, and now the mining activities were focused on war, and the prison camp didn't help. In the 1960's, the uranium mining was closed down (though some mines remain active for the spas), and the government refocused efforts on bringing the area back to its health and restorative roots.
"For this reason, the modern Akademik Bêhounek Spa Hotel opened in 1975 and seventeen years later, the Curie Spa Complex started to offer its spa service. In the early nineties the health spa company called "Lėčebné láznê Jáchymov Joint-Stock Company" was established and restored the Svornost mining pit and its springs by hundred million crowns investments. Radium Palace and several other spa houses were restored and refurbished. The current Spa Jáchymov company started a new chapter of history based on top service and gaining back the glory and fame. The story times of the Jáchymov's history have gone and the place is known for its charming spa, unique treatment and friendly atmosphere." (this website)
Further Reading
History of Jáchymov Health Spa
Jáchymov - The Oldest Radon Spa in the World
A spa where patients bathe in radioactive water
Uranium: War, Energy and the Rock That Shaped the World by Tom Zollner
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore
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