19th July 1938
Saidschitzer Bitterwasser

Saidschitzer Bitterwasse

From Wikipedia:

The Saidschitz bitter water (Czech: Zaječická hořká voda ) is a highly mineralised medicinal water of the magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt) type. It is used in traditional European balneology and for home drinking treatments. The Saidschitz Epsom salt springs are located in Zaječice u Bečova (Saijitz), a district of the municipality ofBečov (Hochpetsch) in the Czech Republic.

Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) has been a very popular trade item since the Middle Ages. When the only known Epsom salt resources were mined in the English town of Epsom, European nobility scrambled to find resources of a similar type. That's why their personal doctors started looking for a replacement.

In 1717, the personal physician of the Prussian ruler, Friedrich Hoffmann, found springs with bitter water near the municipality of Sedlec and the village of Zaječice. In 1725 he published a report on the newly discovered sources, which were said to be better than the original English sources. He sent this report to the European noble houses. Together with the chemists from the spa town of Teplice (Teplitz), he began to offer cleansing treatments with Seidlitz and Saidschitz bitter water, which increased the popularity of the Teplice spa industry. Doctors also recommended drinking bitter water as an aid for loss of appetite, obesity, stomach and gallbladder diseases, against arteriosclerosis, for skin diseases and in neurology. Other important balneologists followed Hoffmann's work, including Josef von Löschner, AE Reuss and his son.

The development in the use of the sources was interrupted by the Silesian Wars of 1742–1763. Around 1770, Matyáš Loos, who came from Saidschitz, opened the new funding. He started shipping the water in clay jugs called 'Genuine Saijit Bitter Water from Matyáš Loos'. Loos soon became rich, and at the end of 1780 he had a chapel built in Saidschitz using the proceeds from the sale of 'bitter water'.

The ecclesiastical order of the Kreuzherren from Seidlitz, which had the Seidlitzer Brunnen not far away, also opened the shipping process. Their jugs were called 'Seidlitzer Bitterwasser'. The income from the springs aroused the interest of the Lobkowice Dominion from Bilin. The wells were recorded in 1781, whereby the private wells of small farmers were abolished and only those with the strongest water were left in the administration of the estate. Everything that could harm the water was broken down and removed, especially the inflow of surface water. The bitter water was then filled into stoneware bottles marked as 'Real Lobkowicz-Saidschitzer Bitterwasser'. The care of the Saidschitz water was later taken over exclusively by the Lobkowiczer rule.

Since Saidschitz water is never drunk to quench thirst, but only to achieve the required effect, it was already used back then with an enrichment of 34 grams of Epsom salt per liter. In the first half of the 19th century, the Saidschitz region was already the main European supplier of bitter water for therapeutic purposes, with Saidschitz bitter water gaining the reputation of being the purest Epsom salt source in the world.

Currently, Zaječická hořká voda (Saijitz bitter water) is mainly exported to China and other Asian countries as well as to Russia and the USA.

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