Mondorf-les-Bains: the salt hunt that created a spa town

In 1841, a Saxon driller went looking for rock salt beneath Mondorf. He found warm mineral water instead, and the discovery turned a village near the French border into a thermal resort that has welcomed patients since 1847.

A search for salt

Under Dutch rule, a salt tax ran so high that Luxembourg farmers could not afford to salt their meat. Karl-Gotthelf Kind, a Saxon driller who had made a name for himself in Germany, received the task of searching the Luxembourg subsoil for rock salt. His attempts at Cessange, Echternach and Bech-sous-Perl came up empty. Drilling at Mondorf began in 1841, and the borehole eventually reached 730 metres, a European record until 1871. The drill never hit salt. In 1846, after five years of drilling, it struck water instead, warm and heavily mineralised. The local notary J.P. Ledure saw the potential of the find and proposed building a spa resort, an idea that led to the creation of the Société des Bains de Mondorf.

The thermal domain is today a modern company, which can boast of a long experience.

The first patients

The Société des Bains de Mondorf opened its thermal bath in June 1847, and the first patients took the waters under the supervision of Doctor Nicolas Schmit. The health virtues of the spring have been recognised since that year. The water heated at 36°C. Today, the Michel Lucius spring supplies the Domaine Thermal from a depth of 750 metres, at a rate of 440 litres per minute, with a pH of 6.8. Classified as a mixed chloride and soda lime water, it carries a total mineralisation of about 14.6 grams per kilogram of water, dominated by chloride, sodium and calcium, with notable amounts of magnesium and sulphate. Those properties shaped the resort's medical focus, which still includes treatments for the respiratory tract.

From Camp Ashcan to a modern estate

In 1945, the town's Palace Hotel took on a darker role. United States forces received its keys on 30 April and turned it into Camp Ashcan, where 13 of the 22 defendants later tried at Nuremberg, Hermann Göring among them, underwent detention and interrogation. The camp closed on 12 August 1945, and the hotel, which later housed a casino, was demolished in 1988. In 2020, the Chamber of Deputies approved plans to enlarge and modernise the Domaine Thermal. Two years later, Mondorf celebrated 175 years of hydrotherapy: on 10 June 2022, members of parliament including Fernand Etgen, President of the Chamber of Deputies paid a visit to the MONDORF Domaine Thermal. Alongside the open day of 24 July, more than 400 guests received invitations to a celebratory lunch.

This article was written by artificial intelligence and reviewed by our editors.