Baden

Overview & Synopsis

Philippine Welser and her bath are among the most charismatic main attractions at Ambras Castle in Innsbruck, around which numerous myths and questions have grown up: did people bathe or swim in the deep pool? Did Ferdinand II’s wife really die during one of her baths? How arduous was Philippine’s journey to her spa stay in Karlsbad? What technical feat lies behind this bath and the swimming pool in Ambras Castle Park? How important was a clean body at that time? Philippine’s bath marked the beginning of the reflections on bathing, cleansing, swimming and spa treatments that this volume brings together. It was not only the nobility, but also ordinary people who, in pre-modern times, bathed in urban bathhouses or, without permission, in the bishop’s fish pond. Even today, bathing and swimming are imbued with multifaceted connotations, as their role in art and literature demonstrates. After all, water also represents a basis for life and recreation for animals and non-human beings. The diverse uses of water and the complex significance of bathing are explored in contributions spanning history, art history, the arts, ecology, literature, social sciences and education, covering a broad thematic and temporal spectrum from antiquity to the present day.