Bad Salzdetfurth

We had never heard of this town before, so we stopped by for a walk on a free day. Noted very good reconstruction of the central part of the old town.

A local legend tells of a knight from Steinberg who got lost in his vast forest lands while hunting deer. Thirsty, he drank from a spring he found in the area. To his surprise, the water was not fresh, but salty. In those days, salt was a valuable thing, and the knight immediately realized the importance of his discovery. With the help of salt makers, he cleared the forest and founded a settlement, the first mention of which dates back to the early 13th century.

After the Napoleonic Wars, salt sales stagnated, and after the annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover to Prussia in 1866, they fell to unprofitable levels. The town looked for new options to make money and began building salt water baths. The spa opened on May 28, 1857, the birthday of the then King George V of Hanover.

By the 1880s the spa was already receiving about 3000 guests annually and the space in private houses was no longer sufficient. So-called “furnished house” Gildehaus was built. I don't know exactly what its role was, maybe a hotel?


Another beautiful building from those years is the Kronprinz Hotel (1898/99).




St. George's Protestant Church was rebuilt in the Gothic style after a fire in 1695.




More houses on the central street, along the river, many of them have dates of construction written on them. Take into account that numerous fires of XVII-XVIII destroyed most of the town's buildings.








In the Kurpark there are two Graduation towers, built around the middle of the 18th century and still in operation today.


















The trains pass right through the Kurpark.


Kindergarten


Two women's restrooms in the park and one men's restroom, good decision.


At the beginning of the 20th century, deposits of potassium salt were discovered and mining began. The funds from the potash works helped to overcome the post-war housing crisis, when large numbers of Germans from East Germany came to Bad Salzdetfurth. The potash mine was closed in 1992 for economic reasons. Since then, salt mining in Bad Salzdetfurth has ceased.

Getting there: parking lot 52.071528, 10.018778. There is a train station Bad Salzdetfurth.