Healing waters: 10 of the best spa towns in Europe for a restorative autumn break

By Fiona Kerr

From Alpine valleys to belle époque towns, dip your toes in the therapeutic waters and steaming mineral pools at spa hotels offering centuries-old healing treatments In 2021, Unesco designated 11 historic spa towns across Europe as one transnational world heritage site , recognising their “exceptional testimony to the European spa phenomenon, which gained its highest expression from around 1700 until the 1930s”. The town offers three natural healing traditions: mineral springs, carbon dioxide springs known as Maria’s Gas, and therapeutic peloids (mud and clay). Deep in the north of the Black Forest, this spa town offers ways of immersing in nature beyond soaking in waters from the thermal sp