In municipal baths 500 years ago

Compared to Germany and Switzerland the Austrian historical research has considerable deficit with regard to ist old baths in towns, particularly in Tyrol. Except Hall hardly anything is known here about municipal steam baths. The present study shall be a first step to remove this deficit. Thanks to relatively favourable tradition Rattenberg put itself forward for research, where ten barber surgeons could be verified between 1480 and 1580. They were at townspeople`s (layman and clerics), but also peasants`, miners` and smelters` from the neighbourhood service for personal hygiene, relaxation, regeneration, prevention and healing of diseases. While menial tasks as (hair-) washing, dousing, rubbing off could be ceded to the staff (male and female bathing attendants, apprentices), haircutting, shaving, bloodletting, cupping and surgery (treatment of teeth, wounds, blows, bruises, fractures, dislocations, ulcers and so on) were reserved for the barber surgeon himself or for a skilled attendant. There was not yet a master craftsman`s examination. Judging from their revenues, fortune and social position the barber surgeons were numbered among the lower middle class of Rattenberg. As a rule they only received the Inwohnerrecht. Public baths were not only frequented for personal hygiene and recreation, but they were also places of contact and cosy get-together. The Trinkstube upstairs served this purpose too. Because the bathhouse in Rattenberg still exists, ist building structure and room arrangement could be explained more fully. Infectious diseases, wedding and May baths were described more precisely too. While steam baths in middle and larger cities had disappeared long ago, they survived in small towns like Rattenberg (roughly 900 inhabitants about 1530) up to the 18th century. The ordinary people wouldn`t go without their weekly meeting place. The detailed study about Rattenberg is embedded in the history of bathing, which reaches from the steam baths in medieval times to the public baths and public shower-baths in the 19th century. Therein health spas, thermal baths, acratotherms come up as well as the doctors` changing opinions about hygiene and body care, about utility and harmfulness of water and bathing.