The original spa at Kamnik was built in 1875 by Alojz Prašnikar, a Slovene entrepreneur who decided to invest in the nascent wellbeing industry. There's a hidden connection with the pretty medieval town of Kamnik, about 20km north of the capital, Ljubljana, and I'd come here to find out more about the man and his approach. While Kneipp's legacy is well known in Germany, his influence lives on in modern-day Slovenia as well. However, his motivation was to treat the poor and he did not turn away those who could not pay. Archduke Franz Ferdinand came for treatment, as did Pope Leo XIII. Over time he became extremely popular, attracting a glitzy list of celebrity clients who sought out his expertise. Kneipp began to treat people from his monastery and eventually set up a health spa, Bad Wörishofen, near Munich. He also advocated a diet of mainly plant-based and locally sourced food and extolled the power of nature, daily exercise and a balanced way of life.Īll this, more than a century and a half before Wim Hof, Gwyneth Paltrow and modern wellness gurus re-popularised these practices. However, Kneipp cured himself through experimenting with hydrotherapy, including regular plunges in the chilly Danube river, and thereafter evangelised cold-water immersion to strengthen the immune system. He had contracted tuberculosis when he was 26, which was often a death sentence at that time. Born in 1821 and trained as a Catholic priest in Germany, he was driven to investigate "water cures" through personal experience. But this 19th-Century priest-turned-wellness guru is one of the godfathers of some of today's hottest wellness trends. Kneipp is not especially well known outside central Europe. After all, I was attempting to perform one of the water therapies he invented. I was surrounded by a forest of dark-green pine, spruce and alder trees, and with the soft music of cow bells in the distance, this would be a scene that Sebastian Kneipp would have recognised from more than 150 years ago. Crystal-clear mountain water swirled around me making it hard to balance as I raised each leg in turn, keeping my foot pointing downwards. Knee-deep in a freezing-cold stream in alpine Slovenia, I was wobbling on one leg attempting to practise "stork walking".
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