Mug Saidschitzer Bitter Wasser
Zaječická bitter water (Saidschitzer Bitter Wasser, Sedlitz Water) is a world-renowned natural medicine with a rich history. Known since the 17th century throughout the civilized world, she was not allowed Zaječická bitter water missing from any printed encyclopedia. The name "Zaječická" also served as a standard of quality and effect, which was imitated many times.
Practically all the world's pharmaceutical companies of the last and the century before last produced Seidlitz Powders, which although had nothing to do with Zaječická (or Sedlecká) water, but used its famous name. So we can look at the history of the use of this unique natural resource, which we can still use even today.
Saischitzer Bitterwasser
The village of Zaječice u Mostu
The oldest written reports about Zaječice are from 1413. The name of the village Zaječice is derived by linguists from the designation of the seat of the "people of Zaječice". In later times, the fertile land in the vicinity concentrated the interest of the Bílin estate of the Lobkovics, who owned Zaječice together with Bečov until the end of the First World War. The village was affected by war events as early as the 15th century and again later during the Thirty Years' War, when, like others in the area, it was burned, devastated and rebuilt again.
Dr. Friedrich Hoffmann
Discovery of bitter salt springs in 1717
The 18th century brought about a change in the agricultural character of Zaječice, Bečov, Sedlec, Korozluk and Vtelno. At that time, near the neighboring village of Sedlec, on the estate of the Order of Crusaders with the Red Star, the well-known balneologist Dr. Friedrich Hoffmann (personal physician of the Prussian monarch) the so-called "bitter water". This doctor, who lived between 1610 and 1742, was one of the first to recognize the beneficial effects of various mineral waters for individual diseases and focused his entire life on the search for healing springs.
Dr. Friedrich Hoffmann moved mainly in the Podorušnohorá region, but also elsewhere, on the Šporková estate near Kuksu, and many of our leading sources owe their fame to him to a large extent. "Bitter water” discovered in Zaječice in 1717. Doctors of the time recommended drinking bitter water against loss of appetite, obesity, diseases of the stomach and gallbladder, against narrowing of arteries, skin diseases, and also in neurology.
Sedlec powders were produced by pharmaceutical companies all over the world
Dr. Friedrich Hoffmann published his discovery in 1725 in a book "Der zu Sedlitz in Böhmen neu entdeckte bittere purgierende Brunnen", which aroused considerable interest, because Dr. Hoffmann described the salt obtained by evaporation from this water as identical to bitter Epsom salts in England, widely known and sought after.
Franz Ambrosius Reuss, an important balneologist, then publishes a book written in German in Prague in 1791 Das Saidschützer Bitter-Wasser physikal, chemisch und medizinisch beschrieben.
First Bitter Water Stores (1770)
Saidschitzes Mattias Losisches Bitter Wasser
The development of the exploitation of the springs was interrupted Austria-Prussia the war for Silesia, when high contributions to enemy units in the territory of Mosteck and the effort to save property diverted attention from larger business.
Around 1770, Matyáš Loos, a native of Zaječice, discovered "bitter water" on his land with a significant beneficial effect, began to pump it and distribute it. The peasants' way of doing business was then greatly expanded in this area. It was the first mining activity in the so-called "farmer's shafts" in the Pod Ore Mountains region.
Matyáš Loos began to get rich very early on from his business, and from the proceeds of the sale of "bitter water" he built a chapel in Zaječice at the end of 1780, which he dedicated Ferdinand of Castile.
1781 – Prameny is taken over by the Lobkovice estate
Springs of "bitter water" became an important facility. Water was distributed in stone bottles, the Order of the Crusaders filled glass bottles with water in their mother monastery in Prague, which were rare at the time. The income from the springs concentrated the interest of the Lobkovice manor, in 1781 the wells were registered, the private wells of small farmers were abolished and only the strongest and richest were left in the management of the manor. (Incidentally, these are still used successfully today).
Everything that would harm the water was cleaned and removed, especially the inflow of surface water. The bitter water was then filled into branded stoneware bottles. There were 23 wells in Zaječice at that time. Zaječická bitter water was marked with a special stamp in Prague when exported, as it was very often the subject of counterfeiting.
A stamp guaranteeing the authenticity of Zaječice bitter water
Bitter waters from the surrounding villages
Wteln Bitterwasser – well closer to the village of Vtelno
There was also a growing interest in the surrounding area for the wealth that the beneficial springs brought. In the neighbors Korozluky, which were bought by Helle and Mendel, they had a well dug with a spring of bitter water, pumped it and distributed it, and thus significantly increased the financial value of the land and the yard. Bitter water was also pumped in Rudolice near Most in the Gut Kahn estate, and promotional writings about her were published here from 1826 until the First World War.
The bitter water from the nearby Bylan u Mostu also experienced a greater spread. However, this water was not true bitter water of the sulphite-magnesium type, but rather sulphite-magnesium-sodium water, which is qualitatively worse and harder to be accepted by the human body. Due to the complex phonetic transcription of the word Bylany, Bylan water had many name variants: Pillna Bitterwasser, Pülna Bitter Wasser, Püllnauer Bitterwasser, Pillnaer Bitter Wasser and the like.
A. Ulbrich PILLNAER Bitter wasser
In 1820, merchant A. Ulbrich leased the springs, built a spa house in the village, and began bottling the medicinal water into original bottles and exporting it in large quantities. Bylan mineral water was exported practically all over Europe until the beginning of the Second World War.
Development of Zaječice as a spa settlement, construction of the Laboratory
From the existing well-preserved exhibition estates in Zaječice, it is evident that the settlement developed a spa character. The documents are homesteads No. 12, 10, 14, 1 and 4.
Zaječické Laboratory 1900
In the middle of the 19th century, some estates saw the construction of apartments for wage laborers with their families. The care of the Zaječice bitter water was later exclusively taken over by the Lobkovice estate. For easier transport, water was thickened by evaporation and became even more effective in concentration. In the first half of the 19th century, the Zaječice region was the main European supplier of bitter water.
Brand store in China
The present day of Zaječické bitter water
Currently, Zaječická bitter water and its beneficial effects are extremely popular in Asia, especially in China, where it is called the "blue noble" due to its distinctive cobalt blue packaging. www.sqwater.com.