Tamina Gorge
Bad Ragaz

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The history of Tamina Gorge's thermal water dates back to the 13th Century when monks from the Pfafers Benedictine monastery discovered a spring which curiously bubbled wafts of steam, deep from within the chasms of the Tamina Gorge. Initially mistaken for dragon’s breath, these thermal waters actually turned out to have healing properties.

Acknowledged by the famous naturalist, philosopher and doctor Paracelsus as a place of healing, Paracelsus wrote an entire book on the therapeutic effects of Tamina Gorge’s thermal water, which has a constant temperature of 36.5 degrees Celsius (97.7°F).

Hearing of Tamina Gorge's healing properties, the first patients to test the waters were laboriously lowered into the gorge in baskets suspended from ropes. They spent weeks immersed in the water in a quest to heal their ailments. Later, a bathhouse was built at the gorge entrance. Since 1840, a pipeline has led directly from the spring to the village of Bad Ragaz, initiating Bad Ragaz's age of spa tourism.

Nowadays, for visitors interested in history, there is a monastery and a spa museum with a rotating set of exhibits located at the gorge. Once a year, an interactive show - Light Ragaz—transforms the walls of Tamina Gorge into a legendary light show upon its 70-meter-high (229 ft) rock faces.

Those interested in exploring deep within Tamina Gorge's walls can access a tunnel which safeguards the path through the interior of the rock, leading past a small thermal spring and up to the grotto fed by the thermal waters.

Bathing in the healing waters is a must and can be done when you visit the Tamina Therme or the Grand Resort Bad Ragaz, from where the thermal waters are directly piped.