Karlbad in the biosphere reserve

HistoriCAL WELLNESS EXPERIENCE

After hiking in the Nockberge, you can enjoy a delightful ancient bathing tradition at Karlbad. This offers a very special charm: because at Karlbad you can relax like in days long gone by.

You will look for electricity and sockets in vain here. Time seems to have stood still and slowly everyday worries and frenzy will melt away. The 500-year-old Carinthian farmers' baths are among the last of their kind in the Alps. But what awaits you at the oldest wellness establishment of Bad Kleinkirchheim?

Before Georg Aschbacher and his son Hans-Jörg can stoke the boilers and the hot water in the wooden tubs can promise enticing sunshine moments to day guests and those staying in the seven guest beds, quite a lot of preparation is necessary.

Hours before enjoying the spa, stones full of high-quality minerals must be heated. The bath master Georg stacks these alternately with wood in six layers and lights a fire. After over two hours, the glowing stones are placed in tubs with ice cold spring water containing radon.

The soothing bathing treatment, as was once typical in the 17th and 18th centuries and which serves the prevention of gout and rheumatism, can now finally start after these preparations.