Warm water in a shadowy gorge

For 700 years people have been bathing in the healing waters of the Tamina gorge.
A visit to the springs can be combined with a hike in spectacular surroundings. Water sometimes seeks out astonishing paths, and the water in which you will bath at the end of the excursion into the St. Gall Oberland has traveled a most astonishing route indeed. You will find yourself in the 34-degree outdoor pool of the Tamina Therme in Bad Ragaz. Since the mid nineteenth century, the water has been piped to the spa from the thermal springs four kilometers away. That is not especially astonishing. In contrast however, the source of the warm water that bubbles out of the rocks into the Tamina gorge has been found by researchers to spring from the area of the Tödi. There, in the southern-most part of Canton Glarus, the water seeps deep into the earth, where it is warmed. Somehow it then finds its way under the Sernf and Weisstannen valleys to the Tamina gorge. Its emergence in this spot probably has to do with the fact that hardly any other mountain stream has bored so deeply into the rock as the Tamina.
All this and more can be learned when you visit the spa museum in the Altes Bad - the old spa. This magnificent baroque structure is located in the Badtobel at the lower entrance to the Tamina gorge.
The hike begins at the former Pfäfers monastery (now the St. Pirminsberg Clinic), with a visit to the baroque church. After walking through Pfäfers village you take a steep downhill path requiring firm footing. Once on the valley floor, you walk along the road to the Altes Bad. A gravel path takes you under spectacular overhangs, and even more spectacular overhangs and a natural bridge are to be seen near the thermal springs. At this point you pay with a five-franc piece to go through the revolving door into the dark, humid gorge.
After exploring the gorge and enjoying a good lunch in the restraurant of the Altes Bad you can continue on to Bad Ragaz, where you can recover in the warm water of the Tamina springs.

See also
Heidiland Tourismus AG
Infostelle Bad Ragaz
Am Platz 1
CH-7310 Bad Ragaz
Tel: +41 (0)81 300 40 20
Fax: +41 (0)81 300 40 21
E-Mail: spavillage@heidiland.com
Internet: www.heidiland.com

Altes Bad Pfäfers
Tel: +41 (0)81 302 71 61
E-Mail: info@altes-bad-pfaefers.ch
Internet: www.altes-bad-pfaefers.ch

Tamina Therme
CH-7310 Bad Ragaz
Tel: +41 (0)81 303 27 40
Fax: +41 (0)81 303 27 46
E-Mail: taminatherme@taminatherme.ch
Internet: www.taminatherme.ch

Order hiking map: www.heidiland.com/de/aktivitaeten-erlebnisse/sommer/wandern-klettern/wanderkarte-heidiland