![The Gurnigelbad on a postcard dating from 1907.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/titelgurnigel-300x225.jpg)
The healing waters business
Water cures, a programme of activities and amusements, meeting place of the wealthy and the beautiful... In the 19th century, Gurnigelbad in the canton of Bern was a chic spa resort in the centre of the province...
![Print of the Kurhotel Gurnigelbad spa hotel, c. 1825.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/ansicht-bains-300x207.jpg)
![Gurnigelbad experienced rapid development: from a modest spa establishment in the forest...](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/kurbad-beginn-300x242.jpg)
![... to a modern spa hotel offering exceptional service.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/kur-hotel-300x212.jpg)
![Photograph of the “Saaltöchter”, or waitresses, from the 1892 business records.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/service-angestellte-300x220.jpg)
![The hotel director claimed the newly built Gurnigelbad was “as long as the Spitalgasse in Bern”. Aerial photograph dating from 1926.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/gurnigelbad-neu-gebaut-300x145.jpg)
![And it even had an “Einkaufsmeile”, an enclosed strip of shops protected from wind and weather. Picture from 1890.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/einkaufsmeile-300x223.jpg)
![Between 1918 and 1920 there were almost no tourists at all, due to the Spanish flu.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/spanische-grippe-300x243.jpg)
![Photograph of the spa resort of Ottenleuebad, c. 1920.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/ottenleuenbach-300x182.jpg)
Water cures, a programme of activities and amusements, meeting place of the wealthy and the beautiful... In the 19th century, Gurnigelbad in the canton of Bern was a chic spa resort in the centre of the province...