Poland - Kudowa-Zdrój

Views of Kudowa-Zdrój in Poland.

Sent by Karolina, a postcrosser from Warsaw, Poland.

This is from Wikipedia : Kudowa-Zdrój [kuˈdɔva ˈzdrui̯] (German: Bad Kudowa, Czech: Chudoba) is a town situated in the foothills of the Stołowe Mountains in the southwestern part of Poland, in Kłodzko County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, about 400 m above sea level. It has a population of about 10,000. It is located right at the Polish-Czech border, just across from the Czech town of Náchod, and some 40 km west of Kłodzko.

Kudowa-Zdrój is a historic spa town where heart and circulation system diseases were cured. In the downtown area, there is a park, styled on 17th century revival, with exotic plants and a mineral water pump room. Due to its location, the town is a used as a place for tourism, walking, biking, and as the departure point for trips. Among notable locations of the region is The Chapel of Skulls and The Moving Nativity Scene in Czermna, The Basilica in Wambierzyce, The Bear Cave in Kletno or the heritage park in Pstrążna as well the natural surroundings of the nearby Table Mountains. It is situated 3 kilometers from the centre of the town to the Czech border and about 140 kilometers to Praha, the capital of the Czech Republic.

Kudowa-Zdrój is one of the oldest spa resorts in Poland and Europe. It is first mentioned in a document by Henry the Older, son of the Hussite Czech king George of Podebrady. The original name of the village was Lipolitov, but in the mid-16th century it was changed to Chudoba, later on Kudoba (Cudoba in 19th century), Bad Kudowa and in 1945 into Kudowa-Zdrój.

The oldest part of Kudowa is Czermna, dating back to the 16th century. The first record of a mineral waters in the area comes from 1580 from the chronicles of Louis of Náchod, under the name Cermenske Lazne.

In 1625 (or, as some sources say, as early as 1621), G. Aelurius, a Protestant Lutheran monk in his work "Glaciografia" writes about the great taste of the mineral waters from Kudowa, how healthy they were and that they were used for winemaking.

The first owner of the spa was a former military commander from Thirty Years War Albrecht von Wallenstein (1583–1634), and after him his brother-in-law Count A. E. Terzky from Nachod in Bohemia.

Devices for healing baths were known from 1630, and made from wood. A scholary description of Kudowa's waters was made by doctor Kramer in scientific work from 1694. In 1777 a publishing company from Breslau „Kornów” printed a Polish guide describing Kudowa, written by Daniel Vogl.

In 1847 Kudowa was visited by 300 patients. In 1850 A. Duflos made a chemical analysis of the local waters and claimed they have healing traits. Local doctor J. Jacob, helped in establishing the thesis that Kudowa is a spa helping of heart related diseases, which made significant impact of the number of people visiting the town. In 1900 the number of people who visited was 4,150. A famous visitor of the town was Helmut von Moltke together with his family. Thanks to development of business organizations, a railway line to Glatz and a local power plant the spa grew and in 1906 8.000 visitors attended its facilities. Among the guests one of the more famous people was Winston Churchill. In 1920 the Gebrüder Martin und Paul Polka O.H.G. company bought the largest spa resort of the town. From 1911 to 1931 Raphael Friedeberg worked as a physician in the Spa.

In 1871-1945 Bad Kudowa in the county of Glatz was part of the state of Germany as Bad Kudowa in the province of Lower Silesia. After 1945 most German inhabitants were forcibly expelled and replaced by Polish settlers. After becoming part of Poland it received city rights for the first time in its history. Before 1945 a minority of ethnic Czechs lived in Kudowa-Zdrój (then Bad Kudowa). Small groups of Germans and Czechs continued to live in Kudowa until 1960, and a German school and a Czech-speaking school existed in the town from 1951–1960 and from 1947-1955.