Therme Bad Steben

Therme Bad Steben is the bath of the Bavarian state spa of Bad Steben in the Frankenwald, on the northern edge of Upper Franconia, and is operated by Bayerisches Staatsbad Bad Steben GmbH from Badstraße 31. The town's standing as a spa rests on a combination of three natural remedies that the operator describes as rare in Europe: radon, carbonic acid and natural moor. Radon reaches the surface in the Tempelquelle, which the bath calls a natural radon occurrence of a kind held by only a few spas in central Europe. Two further springs, the Wiesenquelle and the Max-Marien-Quelle, are carbonated calcium waters whose therapeutic reputation the operator traces back more than five hundred years, and whose carbonic acid content it states far exceeds the medical threshold for a carbonated mineral spring. Published analyses give total dissolved mineral content of 361 milligrams per litre for the Tempelquelle, 728 for the Wiesenquelle and 2,129 for the Max-Marien-Quelle, with free carbon dioxide above 2,000 milligrams per litre in the latter two and radon activity of 1,473 becquerel per litre in the Tempelquelle.

The spring water is not used to fill the leisure pools. It is applied in the health centre as individual bath treatments, among them a carbonic-acid mineral bath and a radon mineral bath drawn from the Tempelquelle, the latter available only on medical prescription, together with natural moor packs and full baths. Moor has been used at Bad Steben since the spa physician Ludwig Kunstmann introduced it in 1827. Because these treatments are booked individually and the general bath is open to any visitor, the site functions as a public bath rather than a clinic.

The bathing area, marketed as the Wasserwelten, centres on a large glazed swimming hall at 30 °C fitted with a fifteen-metre bubble bench, with a separate whirlpool at 36 °C. Outdoors there is a brine pool at 36 °C with a geyser, massage jets and neck showers, and a flow channel with so-called champagne loungers and a scent grotto set into it. Two sensory pavilions house sound showers, a seven-metre resonance tower, waterfall showers, a tropical-rain area and a slate steam grotto; a light-and-sound pool carries underwater music and video projections. A separate Vitalhalle holds a large exercise pool with a movable floor adjustable between 30 and 180 centimetres, used for aqua courses, plus an individual therapy pool.

The Saunaland is built around Finnish kelo log houses and local slate and includes a Finnish fire sauna at 95 to 105 °C, an infusion sauna at 85 to 95 °C, an earth sauna at 100 to 110 °C, a bio-herbal sauna at 55 to 60 °C, a large panorama sauna seating up to sixty, an aroma steam bath and an event spa at 45 to 48 °C, a salt grotto, and a sauna garden with a natural bathing pond and a Japanese-style onsen hot pool at 37 to 40 °C. The Wellness-Dome adds a brine flotation pool at 34 °C with a salt content of 10 to 12 per cent in water only 50 centimetres deep, a brine inhalation grotto, a brine lagoon at 34 °C and a heated sand loggia. The Wasserwelten open daily from 09:00 to 22:00 and the Saunaland and Wellness-Dome daily from 10:00 to 22:00. The bath's separate open-air pool, the Freibad, opens only in summer, while the Therme itself stays open all year.