Curtina since 1315, mineral water and historic baths

One of the oldest stories of Al Plan / San Vigilio di Marebbe,
where memory, water and hospitality have met for centuries.

Before becoming a hotel,
Aqua Bad Cortina was once a lived-in place full of life:
a farmstead, an inn, a bathhouse and, since the very beginning, a place of water.

Its history reaches back to the Middle Ages:
as early as 1315, the name “Curtina” appears in a historical document,
an ancient trace of a place deeply connected to the origins of Al Plan, the Ladin name of San Vigilio di Marebbe.
In the following centuries, Cortina appears again and again in documents as an estate, a farmstead, an inn and a living heart of the valley.

Between the 16th and 17th centuries,
Cortina becomes increasingly visible in the records as an estate, a farmstead and an inhabited place.
This is the time of “Inner” and “Außer Cortina”,
of changes in ownership, of the inn and of the first rights connected to the baths and the water.
In this period, documented history also meets Ladin memory:
for a time, Cortina belonged to the legendary “Gran Bracun”,
a mythical and powerful figure in the tradition of Al Plan and Val Badia.

The history of the water becomes clearer from the 18th century onwards.
In 1741, the “Badl” of San Vigilio was already in existence;
in 1777, documents mention the “Würtshaus Cartina” and “Ein Baad”, an inn with a bath.
In 1779, the bathhouse, the water rights and the water conduction are mentioned:
concrete signs of a tradition that brought together everyday life, hospitality and wellbeing.

In the 19th century, Bad Cortina entered the age of healing baths and alpine summer retreats.
Guidebooks, studies and newspapers described the spring, its mineral composition, the pure mountain air
and the value of staying here.
In 1870, the Pustertaler Bote announced the seasonal opening of “Bad Cortina in St. Vigil in Enneberg”;
in 1877, hiking guides mentioned it as a place of healing and a starting point for walks in the Dolomites.

In 1890, the first analyses by the University of Innsbruck officially confirmed the mineral nature of the water.
From then on, the bathing tradition grew stronger: no longer only rustic baths or everyday use, but a true experience of healing, quiet and mountain life.

After a period in which, from the 1980s until the late 1990s, the baths and the water were partly neglected,
the spring returned to the heart of the house.
In 2003, it was newly captured, with a new collection basin and a new pipeline that still connects the spring directly to the hotel today.

Since 2011, mineral water baths have been reintroduced, in the world’s first bathtubs made of silver quartzite.
In 2019 came the highest official recognition: the Italian Ministry of Health, with Executive Decree no. 4324 of 20/09/2019,
recognized the spring for balneotherapy and mud-bath therapy. A thermal mineral water, sulphate-calcium-magnesium mineralized, microbiologically pure.

Today, the water of Aqua Bad Cortina is not only memory: it is a daily experience.
It is served in the dining room, flows from every tap in the hotel and brings a small spring into every room.
In summer, guests can reach the spring on foot, just 400 metres from the house,
accompanied by Nicol along a natural path made of water, forest and thoughts.

Aqua Bad Cortina thus preserves a rare continuity:
not only a hotel, but a living root of Al Plan / San Vigilio di Marebbe.
A place where history meets water, Ladin hospitality and the nature of the Dolomites.