JELENIA GORA – CIEPLICE A HISTORICAL VIEW

‘… bath parks known for their baths attract various guests every year with their nice construction, layout and order, they gush with hot water which, evaporating, heals various weaknesses.’

This is how a Polish traveller and a poet Bogusz Zygmunt Stęczyński, who came here in 1851, wrote about Cieplice spa. Not only the local waters, but also the specific climate and location at the foot of the mountains are beneficial for all sorts of weaknesses. When you arrive in Cieplice, you feel that these properties of Cieplice spa help you to recover faster. They have been helping for a long time. The beginnings of Cieplice are lost far in the depths of history. Probably a Slav Bobrzan tribe already knew about the existence of its warm springs. However, local accounts attribute the discovery of Cieplice springs to Prince Boleslaw the High who in 1175 ventured in this direction in pursuit of his wounded deer. The wonderful properties of the local waters attracted patients seeking a cure. This is probably why on March 18, 1281 Prince Bernard of Lviv donated to the hospital order of St. John of Strzegom ‘Calidusfons’ the ‘Warm Spring’ and 250 fields of land in the area. From then on the order began to look after the sick who came here.

Another page in the history of Cieplice was written by a knight Bolek II of Swidnica-Jawor, Gotsche Schoff, who bought Cieplice in 1381 from Agnieszka, a widow of a prince. 22 years later he also brought Cistercians from Krzeszow giving them one of the springs. This order was associated with Cieplice for four centuries. Scientific descriptions largely contributed to the popularization of Cieplice waters. The first was prepared in 1569 by a Brandenburg physician Caspar Hoffman, the second, much better and more extensive, was the work of a local physician Kaspar Schwenckfeld. It was published in 1607 in Zgorzelec. The fame of Cieplowody – as Cieplice was called in the old days – was constantly growing and so was the  number of the sick, today called the patients, arriving here.

Poles also learned about the spa. However, we do not know exactly when the first Polish patient appeared here. Perhaps it was Helena née Klucznik Kałęcka, the wife of Warsaw mayor who died during her treatment in 1591. The later list of Polish patients is quite long. It is worth mentioning hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski, Albrycht Stanisław Radziwiłł, Krzysztof Opaliński, Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł and his pantler Teodor Billewicz, the author of the first Polish description of the spa, the Primate of Poland Michał Radziejowski, Jakub Sobieski, Hugo Kołłątaj, Józef Wybicki, Edward Dembyski, Princess Izabela Czartoryska of Fleming, the author of travel journals to Cieplice in 1816, the aforementioned poet Bogusz Stęczyński, Rozalia Saulson – the author of the Polish guide to Cieplice and the surrounding area, and many, many other less known patients. Visitors from Poland sometimes constituted more than a half of the patients staying in the spa town. As a result, until the twentieth century, the western part of Cieplice on the left bank of the Kamienna river was called the ‘Die polnische Seite’, meaning ‘the Polish side’.

The most notable guest, however, was the Polish queen Maria Kazimiera Sobieska – the wife of Jan III Sobieski. According to a chronicler, she came to the spa with her retinue on June 30, 1687, on Monday afternoon. Her visit for many years remained in the memory of the inhabitants. Spa infrastructure was constantly developed for centuries. The Schaffgotsch family, who after the dissolution of the Cistercian order in 1810 became the owners of all Cieplice springs, knew well that investments in the development of the spa were necessary – mainly in transport. From 1814, ambulances arrived here from Jelenia Gora, from 1880 stagecoaches, from 1891  trains, from 1897 first gas trams – then the electric ones. In 1935 Cieplice became a town and 36 years later it was incorporated into Jelenia Gora. However, the spa status has been preserved to this day.

TOURIST ATTRACTIONS OF CIEPLICE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS

Cieplice has many facilities that deserve a closer look. These include in particular:

A Cistercian monastery complex

The first monastery was established after 1403 and was probably destroyed during the Hussite wars. The new one, built in 1586-87, was rebuilt in the Baroque style in 1679-84. Destroyed by the fire in 1711, it was quickly rebuilt and has survived to this day. It is a modest, single-drag, two-story building, surrounding a trapezoidal courtyard with a garden (patio). Two Renaissance portals have survived, and some Baroque stucco inside. One part of the building is currently occupied by the Piarists, the other part is taken by the spa management.

Baroque church of St. John the Baptist

It was built between 1712 and 1714 in the place of an older Gothic one from the beginning of the 15th century that burnt, like a monastery, in 1711.

Long House at Koscielna street

Built around 1546 as a monastery building, rebuilt by the Cistercians in 1689-93 and connected by a covered porch to the spring, it is the oldest spa house in Cieplice.

Baroque stone figure of St. John of Nepomuk (1712) – the work of a famous sculptor L. Weber from Swidnica in Silesia.

Schaffsgotsch Palace

Built between 1784 and 88 in the classical style according to the design of G.J. Rydolf from Opole in the place of the former Renaissance manor. A double-drag, three-storey building founded on a rectangular plan covered with a gable roof with dormers, with a modest front elevation, it is decorated with Schaffsgotsch coat of arms cartouches and Piast eagles (after 1675 they took over the coat of arms of the expired Legnica-Brzeg Piast line). In the interior (rebuilt several times) survived, among others, fragments of stucco and floor mosaic, especially in the Ball, Mirror and Red chambers. Today, the palace houses a branch of  Wroclaw University of Science and Technology. Adjacent to the palace is a spa park, founded in 1748 in the style of a French garden and transformed into an English style landscape park in 1819-38, with a wide avenue lined with linden and maples and with a meadow at the end where you can admire a wide view of the Giant Mountains. Regrettably, the unfortunate construction of the Ministry of the Interior sanatorium on the edge of the park spoiled the charm of this place.

Classicist Spa Pavilion

The pavilion standing in the park, formerly housing the Gallery (today a Spa Club with a restaurant), was built in 1797-1800 according to the design of K. G. Geissler, a student of K.F. Langhans. In 1833, an empire style Spa Theatre with a small auditorium was added from the north. At the entrance to the park from Cervi street (from the west) stands the original monument of martyrdom and glory of the Polish Army (1967). It has the shape of stylized ‘Grunwald’ swords carved in wood by M.K. Szymanik. The spa park behind the bridge on Wrzosowka to the south connects with the Norwegian park, so-called from the wooden pavilion built in the Norwegian style at the beginning of the 20th century, which houses the Natural History Museum (256 Wolnosci street). It has valuable ornithological collections and a great collection of butterflies, which is a part of the great natural collection of the Schaffsgotsch Counts dispersed after the World War II. The museum is a place of periodic exhibitions and interesting lectures on sightseeing.

THERAPEUTIC PROFILES IN CIEPLICE SLASKIE-ZDROJ:

Cieplice Heath Resort Ltd. has a hotel base with 528 places, located in 6 hospital and sanatorium pavilions, the Natural Medicine Centre and the Mineral Water Pump Room. The spa is located at an altitude of 350 m a.s.l. The location of Cieplice Slaskie-Zdroj health resort in Jelenia Gora Valley at the foot of the mountains affects its specific, piedmont, moderate and strongly stimulus climate.

1. REHABILITATION OF THE MUSCULOSKELETAL SYSTEM
2. URINARY TRACT DISORDERS

III. OPTHALMOLOGY – a specialist therapeutic profile

BASIC THERAPY TREATMENTS IN CIEPLICE:
– THERAPEUTIC BATHS
– WATER TREATMENTS
– DRINKING TREATMENT, or crenotherapy, is drinking medicinal water for a specified time in a certain amount, temperature, at a certain time in relation to a meal, prescribed and under medical supervision. Mineral waters drunk directly from the source are the most valuable. Crenotherapy induces a local effect on the gastrointestinal tract expressed by changes in secretory functions and intestinal motility; urinary tract. It also has a general effect on the supplementation of macro and micronutrients contained in water and causes adaptive reactions of the system.

INHALATIONS
PELOIDOTHERAPY baths, wraps, mud tampons, mud paste wraps for eyeballs and periodontium (periodontitis), rectal mud infusions.
KINESTETIC THERAPY to the full extent – collective and individual therapeutic gymnastics
ELECTRICATION galvanization, iontophoresis, therapuls, dynamic currents, interdyn – electro therapy, magnetotron – magnetic therapy, laser therapy, ultrasound.
In addition: classic massages, paraffin wraps, local cryotherapy.

Health Resort Cieplice Ltd. offers therapeutic and holiday stays, Christmas and New Year stays or hotel stays. We invite you all year round for health, rest and relaxation
Cieplice Slaskie-Zdroj located at the foot of the majestic Karkonosze Mountains in the middle of a table-like flat lowering is, next to Ladek Zdroj, the oldest spa in the Sudetes, famous for its favourable therapeutic location, specific stimulus, hardening climate and above all the use of unique warm springs.

Tourist information in Cieplice:  +48 512 413 074