The history of iodine spa in Číž
The first written mention about the village was found in Spiš archive. The document is from 1245 called „terra fílií Thuka“ – it means the land of the son of Thuku. The village has been known like this since 1274. In 1427 the village belonged to the Putnok-Gemer county, it was the 13th village from 27 other villages. From 1565 until1711 the village was struck hard three times. During 1565 and 1682 it was burnt-out by the Turks and in 1711 after a plague epidemic there survived only two families in the village. After this period some new settlers from Muráň started to settle down and in 1785 the village had 408 inhabitants.
The discovery of the iodine water
The Číž spa can be grateful for its origin after the accidental discovery of the iodine-bromine fountain in 1862 when a local citizen Harnócz Andráš bumped into salty water while digging his well, it was in a depth of 8 metres on his estate. The first „patients“ who tried its healing effects, were the local citizens. They first started to use it for cooking and they started to give it to the animals as well as a substitution for salt. In 1865 in Budapest some chemical analysis were carried out under the supervision of Dr. Karol Than. The analysis confirmed that the spring of the salty water contains some healing elements, mainly iodine and bromine which occur in the local mineral water only rarely. The first spring of the iodine water was named Themis (Goddess of the legal order). Artur Glos – a geologist and mining engineer from Číž got other two wells digged. In the depth of 35 m a spring with salty water was found and it had a much higher content of iodine and bromine which are good for healing purpose – spring Hygiea, which has been used for drinking cure for more than 100 years. The third spring Neptún was used for baths together with the Themis spring.
Building the spa
In 1888 a Rimamurán company bought the estates and started to build the spa. All the participants built their own spa houses for the patients (Mária, Margita, Kamilla, Horváth, a Ilona), which disposed of 200 bed capacities althogether. There were built two military pensions which served for complete healing except for pulmonary tuberculosis. The spa it was divided into „lower“ so called clean and „upper“ for the patients with open wounds. The village Číž started to become rich as the poorer patients were accommodated during the summer in private houses. In the spa there was a lively spa life – the patients had a tennis court at their disposal as well music in the park with a brilliant violinist, dancing evenings, piano in the building of the management, daily fresh newspapers, rowing a boat and swimming in the Rimava, a post office, distant letter writing, a telephone, and a jewellery. The spa season lasted from 1st May until 30th September. Glos Artur was the first spa director. After him Dr. Szakall took over the management – the majority shareholder, thanks to him the spa was even more prosperous and as well the village started to thrive. During the winter months the employees were filling the dark bottles with Číž water and it was sent to the USA in bulks, 25 bottles per pack. As well the soaps manufactured with Číž water were very good, they were for curing acne and other different skin diseases. During the 1st Czechoslovak Republic ( in 1934) the Masaryk´s league established in Číž a sanatorium for children – the spa house Milan. The president´s daughter Alica Masaryková was cured here as well. The spa house Milan serves still for children from the age of 3 to 18. M. Perthes and scoliosis are treated here with very good results. After the second world war the spa was nationalized and since 1956 it has had an all year operation. During 1975 – 80 a new spa house was built called Rimava with an indoor rehabilitation pool, physiotherapy, baths, surgeries and a canteen. Since 1996 the spa has been under the management of a joint stock company and this company rebuilt this spa almost completely – all the accomodation capacities were reconstructed, as well the spa park and in the area between the spa houses Rimava and Milan a Water World was built – a summer swimming pool with four pools.
