Bathing and spa resort
In the beginning bathing was in shared baths, where bathers spent time over breakfast and board games. For successful spa treatments, in the old days long bath times and also a generally accepted six weeks length of treatment were required. Also the Gastein Heilstollen contributed as a centre of notoriety - in the form of Radon balneology which offers natural help for a variety of rheumatic diseases.
Since the Middle Ages, word spread of the healing powers of the Gastein spas. Despite the still very simple bathing facilities and accommodation, princes and lords of high standing took the often long and arduous journey up to the thermal springs. The thermal water was moved via open wooden gutters from the sources to the guest houses, later in wooden well pipes. In the neighbouring Bad Hofgastein, for a long time healing water was taken with the help of drums and horse-drawn carriages before in 1830, a thermal water system was built.