History

In 1453, the County of Klodzko was reigned by the governor of the Czech King, the Prince George of Poděbrady whose heirs, his brothers Albert, George and Carol of Poděbrady, became interested in the curative and spa values of Ladek. At the end of the 15th century, they restored and extended both the thermal spring and the treatment facilities. They funded the Chapel of St. George and named the water spring alike. In 1498, Doctor Konrad from Berg came to Ladek and performed the chemical analysis of the local water for the first time in history.

As time went by, in  1571, the Spring was bought by the Town Council. In 1577-1580, the casing of the spring was replaced. The wooden logs were changed into stone ones. Then, the first bath tubs with hot water were assembled and new facilities for the patients were built. The Town Council issued also the first Spa Regulations defining the manner and rules of benefiting from the springs.

In 1591, Jan Crato from Wroclaw, the court medical doctor of the Habsburgs and the owner of Szczytna Slaska, published the first medical text on the beneficial influence of thermal waters from Ladek on many ailments.

As a consequence of the above-mentioned changes, many prominent people decided to came for the treatment to Ladek at that times. The guests included, among others, George II Piast from Brzeg, Carol of Austria and the Cardinal Antini Brus from Prague or Marcin Gerstman, the Bishop from Wroclaw. A splendid ensemble of aristocrats, princesses of the church, artists and politicians started to spend their free time in Ladek. Many of them visited the therms regularly and frequently to have a rest, fun, celebrate anniversaries or create there.

Earlier, however, Ladek was destroyed again during the Thirty Year’s War (1618-1648). The town and the spa were burnt and the ashes were additionally plundered by the Swedes during the famous Deluge. During the Swedish Deluge, the spa facilities were shelled from such type of cannons.

In 1637, the administrator of the County of Klodzko, Zygmunt Hoffmann, bought the spring described by Dr. Schilling and the surrounding area, but due to ongoing wars he made no works there for the next 40 years. Not until 1678 did the owner commission to clean this spring and then, quite nearby, another, warmer spring was found, of greater efficiency, which, in honour of Zygmunt Hoffmann’s wife, was named “Maria” by him. After thorough uncovering of the new water inflow, a container cut in the rock, which was 3 meters long, 2 meters wide and over 2 meters deep, was discovered. The remains of spades, scoops and other tools and items were found in the container. All of that proved the existence of an organized form of spa treatment a long time before, much earlier than in “Jerzy” Spring.

Hoffmann started the construction of a bathing institution which was made available in 1680. It was named “Marienbad” (present “Wojciech”). It was an impressive, octagon facility as high as 20 meters and a diameter of 10 meters. Inside, there was an octagon swimming pool of a 6-meter diameter of and the depth exceeding l,5 meters. A wooden floor covering the water outflows was at the bottom of the swimming pool.

At the turn of the century, there was an ongoing fight between the town and the private spring. Competitive medical publications on the waters in Ladek were released including recommendations on their use. Depending on the patron of the publications, the authors appreciated either “Jerzy” Spring or “Maria” spring more. Only in 1736, when “Maria” was bought from Hoffmann’s grandson by the town authorities, the treatment offer became comprehensive and to date it has equally promoted both the radon and the sulphur-hydrogen thermal resources of Ladek.

In 1744, Gottfried Henry Burghart issued a rich (456 pages) monograph on the treatment in Ladek. The most important conclusion was as follows: “The water from Ladek does not penetrate the organism, but causes a purifying fever causing a skin rash called also a bathing eczema or a skin eruption”.

According to Burghart, the bathing eczema was the basic symptom proving a beneficial influence of baths and it was the basis for determining the time of the treatment at the same time. According to this concept, which was followed in Ladek for many years, doctors from other health-resorts recommended the same time of treatment to their patients.

Burghart recommended 4 weeks of treatment at least, and the patients should spent not less than 120 hours in the bath. An individual treatment time depended on the time when the bathing eczema appeared. He recommended to prolong the time of treatment by the same or slightly more number of hours which was needed for the eczema to appear. In his monograph, Burghart describes in details what should the treatment in Ladek look like, enumerating precisely all types of baths and drinking treatment, which should be applied then.

After the ending of the Third Silesian War (the 7-Year War, 1756-63) when the heroes of the front line, the wounded and the veterans of both parties, Prussia and Austria-Hungary, were resting in the therms at the same time, the Prussian King, Frederick II the Great, came to Ladek personally. It was he himself who many years later led to the First Partition of Poland. He was accompanied by the whole Court with his brother, prince Henry, among others.

In 1782, the Minister for Silesian Affairs, the Count Karl Georg Henry von Hoym came for treatment here. The influence of the springs was so beneficial for his health that he initiated their development commissioning numerous investments in the spa part.

At the end of 18th century, there takes place a gradual but important change of both the rules and the time of using the baths and the whole treatment in the thermal waters. Both Dr. Bach in the document dated 1783 and then Dr. Magalliz in another document written at the turn of the century, recommend to shorten the previously indicated time of baths from many hours to only four a day. But both of them still stress the necessity of taking the bathing eczema described by Burghart into consideration. Dr. A. Foerster, on the other hand, recommended a radical change of the way of treatment. He was a local physicist and a medical doctor in Ladek in the years 1791-1832. He was a strong opponent of relying on the theory of the bathing eczema only. He recommended to start a bath in the swimming pool from 15 minutes and prolonging it up to 30-45 minutes, and even up to 60 minutes in exemplary situations. At the times of his administration, new bathing regulations were issued and they were approved in 1797 by the King Frederick Wilhelm III while in 1805 his scientific work on the treatment in Ladek was published.

In 1811, a treatment fee was introduced obliging to the purchase of a stay card for those who stayed in Ladek over 8 days.

Over the time, other doctors started to support Foerster’s views, and especially his successor’s, Dr. Frederic Bennerth. In 1828, after the restoration of “Marianna” Spring (today’s “Dabrowka”) a new water pump-room was built over it at the place of an old boudoir with an intake of the spring water for drinking. Accidentally in 1829, there was discovered a spring which was named “Laczne” in 1835 after the commencement of its exploitation (now it is “Chrobry” Spring). In 1838, “Wziewnia” (the inhalatorium) was put into operation over “Frederick” Spring (the present “Sklodowskiej-Curie” spring). Then peat treatment procedures were introduced for the first time.

By the end of the eighteenth century outstanding figures had already visited Ladek Zdroj. In 1790 the eminent German poet, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, celebrated his 41st birthday in the spa’s thermal springs. In 1800, Queen Luiza, wife of Prussian king Wilhelm III, made an official visit to take a cure here (five years previous she had made an incognito visit to Ladek Zdroj). The legend has it that is here, in the local park’s alleys, where the ardent love of Luiza and the successor to Prussian throne was born. To commemorate this fact, a foundation stone was laid for the construction of a new ballroom (presently the “Kinoteatr” building).

John Quincy Adams, who later became president of the United States, arrived to Ladek Zdroj in the same year as part of his diplomatic trip to Europe. He is the author of an interesting opinion about the spa, namely that in no other place has everything, including the town’s architecture, been subordinated to the needs and the comfort of convalescents and clients.

During the Napoleonic wars, the spa again became the site of reconciliation. First, it was spared by a writ of protection, ensuring peace, issued in 1807 by Hieronim Bonaparte – Napoleon’s brother stationed in Wroclaw. In the summer of 1813, when French troops were withdrawing to Western Europe, the Prussian king Frederick Wilhelm III spent multiple weeks receiving treatment in Ladek Zdroj and met with his military allay – Tsar Alexander I. The Russians and the Prussians made a brief stop in the spa during their winning offensive, which certainly boosted their morale. A century later this meeting was portrayed on canvas by Anton Heinrich, a local curate.

Since 1876, for almost 28 years, Dr. Aleksander Ostrowicz (1839-1903) worked in Ladek. He was a Polish doctor born in Gostyn in the Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) and he studied medicine in Wroclaw. He issued the first monograph in Polish devoted to the health-resort. The street at “Jerzy” Natural Therapy Institute and one of the sanatoria received his name. The graves of Dr. Ostrowicz and his wife, Klara, who died in 1910, are on the cemetery in Ladek.

The times of Ostrowicz are the times of the best prosperity of the health-resort. It is noteworthy that the residents paid no local taxes in that period because the town earned considerable revenues from treatment services. The owners of houses and guest houses even got wood as an allowance to have fuel for their fireplaces. The guests boarded in 11 restaurants, there were many exclusive stores, tailor’s and services shops. The number of guest houses and patients was increasing rapidly, and in the middle of the 19th century there were 46 houses with 369 rooms, in 1877 only the houses reached the number of 90 in order to open the hundredth guest house in Ladek solemnly in 1903.

In his monograph, Dr. Ostrowicz describes precisely the everyday life in the health resort where guests from Europe, the USA and even Africa stayed. The Poles made up almost 10% of all of them, and the local library, apart from a rich collection of books in our language, subscribed three Polish newspapers like the Cracow “Czas” and “Dziennik Poznanski”, among others. In 1820, there was build “Hotel de Pologne”, the centre of the spa life, which was funded by the Radziwill family.

“Marienbad” Bathing Institution (present “Wojciech”) was demolished in 1878. After two years, a new, magnificent, Neo-Baroque facility was erected according to the Herman Yölkel’s design. To date, it is the symbol and flagship of Ladek Zdroj.

First in1904 Dr. Jan Plesch, and then in 1909 Dr. Klemens Schoefer, ascertained the presence of radon in the waters in Ladek. This discovery had some influence on the rules of treatment. In the years 1914-1916 a new bathing institution, “New Jerzy”, was build below the old “Jerzy”. In 1936, a peat institution was annexed to the present “Wojciech”. In 1936, a big swimming pool and a mineral water pump-room were put into operation below “Wojciech” in the direction of the town. This institution is called after Maria Sklodowska-Curie today and forms a part of the 23rd Military Health-Resort Hospital.

During the World War II, Ladek, unlike usual, did not suffer, but the number of patients fell down to zero. The Red Army had not entered the town until 9th May 1945. They opened the treatment institutions for their needs..

In 1949, the Workers’ Holiday Fund (FWP) was established and this institution developed the treatment offer very quickly. In 1953 the Soviet sanatorium was liquidated but after three years the Russians came back to Ladek and carried out their treatments as long as until 1991.

In 1965, Ladek-Zdroj Health-Resort merged with Dlugopole-Zdroj Health-Resort which is 30 km far from it. A State Corporation named “Ladek-Dlugopole Health-Resort” was established. “Dlugopolanka” bottling plant was opened in Szczawina.

The years 1970-1978 are a period of the biggest development of treatment services when the number of patients started to grow. In 1972-1973 a deep (with treatment thermal water) called L-2 drill was made, which is called “Zdzislaw” today. In 1974 “Jubilat” Treatment Hospital was built. The record of the number of patients in the health-resort was set in the years 1977-1978 when over a million of treatment procedures a year were performed (excluding the Soviet sanatorium). The natural therapy institutes were open from 7:00 to 21:00 at that time.

Today, Ladek Health-Resort, enters a new period of changes. The accommodation and treatment facilities are going to be modernized and new offers of treatment services will be available soon. All the activities undertaken by the employees of the Health-Resort are driven by one goal: the good of a man.