![Steam baths were part of Rikli’s water-air-light therapy.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/titel-rikli-300x225.jpg)
The naked sun doctor
Opinions were divided on naturopath Arnold Rikli. He delivered his holistic form of treatment, which involved bathing in the nude, at a sanatorium he had set up himself. Not in Switzerland, but in what is now Slovenia. The Monte Verità counterculture group was inspired, ultimately, by many of Rikli’s ideas and practices.
![Old town of Wangen an der Aare in a drawing by Ludwig Rudolf von Effinger, ca. 1845.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/wangen-300x230.jpg)
![Portrait of Arnold Rikli, ca. 1870.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/portrat-rikli-240x300.jpg)
![Bled as a postcard subject, ca. 1935.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/bled-300x183.jpg)
Water is good, of course, but it won’t do it all; air is better, and sunlight best of all!
![The “sun doctor” was in his element in Veldes, ca. 1875.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/rikli-hutte-300x180.jpg)
![Rikli’s therapies involved a lot of skin. Not everyone was happy about that.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/nackte-300x148.jpg)
The germ of Monte Verità
![Arnold Rikli’s air huts were copied in many places.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/lufthutte-bled-205x300.jpg)
![Not just in Ticino, but in many other places as well, Rikli’s air huts set a precedent.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/lufthutte-216x300.jpg)