class="apple-converted-space"> newspaper about the Laško springs.
Water temperature has been measured at
35
°C
(95 °F)and the setting up
of a health spa was announced. An engineer named Rödel began to work
systematically on the springs during the construction of the railway line. Work
progressed from September 1852, when he purchased the land, until May 1854,
when he ceremoniously opened the spa. The three springs were each given a name:
the Emperor's Spring, Franz's Spring, and Joseph's Spring. The spa was given
the name Kaiser Franz Josef Bad, after Emperor
Franz Joseph I of Austria. Along with
a building with a pool, Rödel also reorganised the nearby mill and built a
luxurious villa. In 1857 the spa was purchased by the
Viennese
professor and cosmopolitan Dr. Stein,
who invited the cream of Viennese society to the health spa. For this purpose
he built onto the spa's building, an extension with a dance hall and planted a
park. He also took care of his guest social life. Stein was later forced to
sell the spa. The spa's reputation returned under the later owner Gunkel, who
radically renovated it and in 1882 built his own hydroelectric power plant, the
first on Slovene soil, which lit up most of the buildings and the whole park.
In cooperation with the brewery they began to brew thermal beer. During
World War I
the spa played the role of a military
hospital. The property was left in
disrepair after the war, but was partly renovated in 1923. Later the spa passed
into the hands of the Pensions Institute (
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