ABSTRACT
Nineteenth-century central European spas were important components in the medical marketplace as well as centres of recreational tourism. It is useful to think of the components of the central European spa trade in terms of a network of different types of sites and institutions, serving a variety of recreational, therapeutic and medical functions across a geographically extensive and diverse region. A geographic survey of central European wells and springs of the early modern period while including the spa resorts which serviced the courts and aristocracy, would also have to include the water sources used by local people. The use of mineral springs was deeply rooted in central European culture. Urban leisure culture and the inland spa trade were both stimulated by the same economic forces, such as the availability of capital, commercial knowledge, entrepreneurial initiatives, human resources and middle-class customers necessary for growth and expansion.
