The Three Berliners -- Strong Beer -- Origin of Warmbrunn
-- St. John the Baptist's Day -- Count Schaffgotsch -- A
Benefactor -- A Library -- Something about Warmbrunn -- The
Baths -- Healing Waters -- The Allée -- Visitors -- Russian
Popes -- The Museum -- Trophies -- View of the Mountains --
The Kynast -- Cunigunda and her Lovers -- Served her right
-- The Two Breslauers -- Oblatt -- The Baths in the
Mountains.
I had gone a little way along the street when I heard voices crying,
"_Eng-lischmann! Eng-lischmann! Eng-lischmann!_" and, looking about, I
saw the three Berliners at the window of an hotel. "You must come up!"
"You must come up!" "You must come up!" cried one after the other; so
up I went. We had half an hour of yood-natured yossip about our
morning's adventures, not forgetting the merits of Stohnsdorf; and one
of them said something about the famous beer that justified the
Dresdener's criticism. "Isn't it yood? Isn't it strong? Why it is so
strong that if you pour some into your hand, and hold it shut for ten
minutes, you can never open it ayain!"
The old story. Some time in the twelfth century, Duke Boleslaw IV.,
while out hunting, struck the trail of a deer, and following it, was
led to a _Warmbrunn_ (Warm Spring), in which, as by signs appeared,
the animals used to bathe. The duke bathed too, and perhaps with
benefit; for near by he built a chapel, and dedicated it to the patron
saint of Silesia--John the Baptist. The news spread, even in those
days; and with it a belief that on St. John's Day the healing
properties of the spring were miraculously multiplied. Hence, on the
24th of June, sick folk came from far and near to bathe in the blessed
water, and some, thanks to the energy of their belief, went away
cured. And this practice was continued down to the year 1810.
Such was the origin of the present _Marktfleck_ (Market Village)
Warmbrunn. In 1387 King Wenzel sold it to Gotsche Schoff--Stemfather,
as the Germans say, of Count von Schaffgotsch, who now rules with
generous sway over the spa and estates that stretch for miles around.
It was he who built the _Schneegrubenhaus_; who made the path up the
Bohemian side of _Schneekoppe_; who opens his gardens and walks to
visitors, and a library of forty thousand volumes with a museum for
their amusement and edification; who established a bathing-house with
twenty-four beds for poor folk who cannot pay, and who spares no
outlay of money or influence to improve the place and attract
strangers.
Warmbrunn now numbers about 2300 inhabitants, who live upon the guests
during the season, and the rest of the year by weaving, bleaching,
stone-polishing, and wood-carving. Of hotels and houses of
entertainment there is no lack; the _Schwarzer Adler_ and _Hôtel de
Prusse_ among the best. But as at Carlsbad, nearly every house has its
sign, and lets lodgings, dearest close to the baths, and cheaper as
the distance increases, till in the outskirts, and they are not far
off, you can get a room with attendance for two dollars a week, or
less. Of refectioners there is no lack in the place itself, or about
the neighbourhood.
There are six baths. The Count's and Provost's--or Great and Little
Baths--are near the middle of the village, separated by the street.
These are the oldest. The water bursts up clear and sparkling from
openings in coarse-grained, flesh-red granite, at a temperature of 94
degrees Fahrenheit in the great basin, and 101 degrees in the little
basin. It is soft on the palate, with a taste and odour of sulphur,
and in saline and alkaline constituents resembles the waters of
Aix-la-Chapelle and Töplitz. It is efficacious in cases of gout,
contractions, skin diseases, and functional complaints; in some
instances with extraordinary results. I heard of patients who come to
Warmbrunn so crooked and crippled that they can neither sit nor stand,
nor lie in a natural posture, who have to be lifted in and out of the
bath, and yet, after two months' bathing, have been able to walk
alone.
Although patients bathe a number together, the throng is so great in
the hot months that many have to study a lesson in patience till their
turn comes. Some, to whom drinking the water is prescribed, resort to
the _Trinkquelle_; and in the other bathing-houses there are all the
appliances for douche, showers, vapour, and friction. One room is
fitted up with electrical and galvanic apparatus, to be used in
particular cases.
With so many visitors Warmbrunn has an appearance of life and gaiety;
the somewhat rustic shops put on an upstart look, or a timid show of
gentility. The _Allée_, a broad tree-planted avenue opening from the
main street, by the side of the Count's _Schloss_, is the favourite
promenade. Here, among troops of Germans, you meet Poles and
Muscovites, some betraying their nationality by outward signs. I saw
three men of very dingy complexion and sluggish movement, clad in
shabby black coats, with skirts reaching to their heels, who seemed
out of place among well-dressed promenaders. They were Russian popes.
Great personages have come here at times in search of health, and on
such occasions the little spa has grown vain-glorious. In 1687 the
queen of John Sobieski III. came with one thousand attendants. In 1702
came Prince Jacob, their son, and stayed a year; and since then
dignitaries without number, among the latest of whom was Field-Marshal
Count von Ziethen, who took up his abode here in 1839.
There are a few paintings worth looking at in the Romish church: one
of them represents the rescue of a Count Schaffgotsch from drowning;
and in the Evangelical church hang two portraits, one of the present
king, the other of Blucher. But the museum established in the same
building with the library, by the liberality of the Count, is the
great attraction. Among the weapons you may see the scimitar which
Sobieski snatched with his own hand from the grand vizier's tent when
he raised the siege of Vienna; and near it a horsetail standard, a
trophy of the same event, brought home by Johann Leopold von
Schaffgotsch, one of the Count's ancestry. In other rooms are a
collection of coins, of maps and charts--among them a few old globes,
interesting to geographers--the Lord's Prayer in one hundred different
languages, a model of the _Riesengebirge_, and other curiosities,
which, with the library, afford abundant means for instruction and
amusement. Then there is music twice a day in the _Schloss_ garden,
and the theatre is open in the evening, besides the numerous
excursions to the hills and mountains around.
The _Allée_, about six hundred paces long, commands a striking view of
the mountain chain from its farther end, where the ground falls away
with gentle slope. I could see the prominent points which I had walked
over a few days before; and nearer--about half an hour's walk--the
Kynast, that much-talked-of ruin, crowning a dark-wooded hill. It
attracts visitors as much by its story as by its lofty and picturesque
situation. There once lived the beautiful but stony-hearted Cunigunda,
who doomed many a wooer to destruction; for none could win her hand
who had not first ridden his horse round the castle on the top of the
wall. One after another perished; but she had vowed a vow, and would
not relent. At last came one whose handsome face and noble form
captivated at once the lady's heart. She would have spared him the
adventure, but her vow could not be broken, and she watched with
trembling heart while the stranger knight rode along the giddy height.
He accomplished the task in safety; she would have thrown herself into
his arms; but with a slap on her face, and a reproach for her cruelty,
the Landgrave Albert of Thuringia--for he it was, who had a wife at
home--turned his horse and galloped away.
While sauntering, I met the two Breslauers--my companions on the
descent to the _Grenzbäuden_--and under their guidance explored yet
more of the neighbourhood. The guard at the frontier had treated them
mercifully, and after half an hour's detention in a little room
up-stairs, let them go. Since then they had been making the usual
round of excursions: to the fall of the Zacken, to the Norwegian
church at Wang, to the Annakapelle, to Hirschberg, and other
places--all within two or three hours' walk. Two days more and they
would have to return to the counting-house at Breslau. Near the
refreshment-houses in the fields young girls followed us offering
packets of _Oblatt_ for sale. This is a crisp cake, of agreeable
flavour, thinner and lighter than the unleavened bread of the Jews,
friendly to the enjoyment of a glass of beer on a hot afternoon; as we
proved by eating a few packets while emptying our tankards in full
view of the mountains, under an airy colonnade.
On our return to the village we met the _Wirth_ from _Schneekoppe_,
who had come down from his cloudy dwelling to bury a relative. I took
the opportunity to send my compliments to Father Hübner, with a hint
that his topographical information had not appeared to me of much more
value than his man's morality.
Mineral springs are frequent in the mountains. Flinsberg, a quiet
village on the Queiss, about four hours from Warmbrunn, in the
_Isergebirge_, is resorted to by women, to whom the saline water
impregnated with iron is peculiarly beneficial. One of the springs is
so highly charged with carbonic acid gas that the villagers call it
the _Bierbrunnen_ (Beer Spring). And a short distance beyond
Flinsberg, on the Bohemian side of the mountains, is Liebwerda, a
romantic village, where springs of health bubble up, and Wallenstein's
castle is within a walk. Quietest of all is Johannisbad, on the
southern slope below _Schneekoppe_, not far from Marschendorf. There
the fountains are lukewarm, and their influence is promoted by
complete seclusion and repose.