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Altes Bad Pfäfers Baroque Bath and Monastery Museum

Altes Bad Pfäfers Baroque Bath and Monastery Museum

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Altes Bad Pfäfers Baroque Bath and Monastery Museum

Recommended by 386 hikers out of 392

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Location: Pfäfers, Sarganserland, St. Gallen, Eastern Switzerland, Switzerland

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Best Hikes to Altes Bad Pfäfers Baroque Bath and Monastery Museum

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3. Tamina Gorge Thermal Spring – Tamina Gorge Illuminations loop from Pfäfers

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Paul

June 23, 2025

Old Pfäfers Baths
Switzerland's oldest baroque bathing facility, now a bathing and monastery museum with a Paracelsus memorial, a neo-Gothic bathing chapel, and a restaurant.
Even the poet Rainer Maria Rilke was fascinated by the mystical Tamina Gorge and the baroque baths.
Switzerland's oldest baroque bathing facility was built between 1704 and 1718 and gently renovated between 1983 and 1995. It is owned by the Canton of St. Gallen.
In 1240, two hunters discovered the 36.6°C spring, whose waters the monks of Pfäfers Monastery discovered had healing properties.
The baths became an internationally renowned spa resort. Today, Old Pfäfers Baths houses a bathing and monastery museum. It depicts the history of the Benedictine monastery of Pfäfers, founded in 740, until its dissolution in 1838.
The spa museum provides insight into the eventful history of the spa and bathing from its origins to the present day.
The museum also includes models of the difficult development of the gorge.
Paracelsus Memorial
A memorial was also established for the naturalist and philosopher Paracelsus. Paracelsus worked as the first spa doctor in Pfäfers in 1535.
Thermal spring
Hot water spring 36.5 degrees Celsius
Text / Source: Municipality of Pfäfers, Hintergasse 4, 7312 Pfäfers
pfaefers.ch/sehenswuerdigkeiten/10213#:~:text=The oldest baroque bathing facility in Switzerland was discovered by monks of the Pfafers monastery who had healing properties.

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uta_is_hiking

May 29, 2024

The Tamina Gorge is located above Bad Ragaz in the northern part of the Tamina Valley in the canton of St. Gallen.
Between Valens and Bonadivis, the water of the Tamina has dug itself up to 200 meters into the rock for 15,000 years.
The narrowest part of the crevices is 750 meters long and 75 meters deep. It is covered at the natural bridge.
In the rear part of the Tamina Gorge is the thermal spring, which has water at a temperature of 36.6 degrees.
From 1350 to 1969, the thermal water was used in Bad Pfäfers, in the Valens medical clinic and in the thermal baths in Bad Ragaz, for example to cure rheumatism. The water was piped there via long pipes.
In Bad Pfafers, guests and the sick were bathed, fed and accommodated. There was also a chapel.

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Tamara B.

September 5, 2019

The Altes Bad Pfäfers is the oldest surviving baroque bath in Switzerland. A touch of nostalgia wafts around the beautifully renovated buildings, which housed guests such as Rainer Maria Rilke and Victor Hugo in the spa's heyday. You can still dine in the detailed dining room today. After the baths were renovated after the French Revolution, the healing springs became the “place to be”: up to three hundred guests from all over Europe linger, bathe, eat and drink in Bad Pfäfers. Today the complex houses a museum and a restaurant. An interesting place to delve into history.

More exciting information about the bathroom: altes-bad-pfaefers.ch

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Elevation 690 m

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Location: Pfäfers, Sarganserland, St. Gallen, Eastern Switzerland, Switzerland

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Altes Bad Pfäfers Baroque Bath and Monastery Museum

1. Tamina Gorge circular tour

2. Tamina Gorge – Tamina Gorge Thermal Spring loop from Bad Ragaz

3. Tamina Gorge Thermal Spring – Tamina Gorge Illuminations loop from Pfäfers

Other Popular Places to Check Out

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