Bad Meinberg - Alter Krug

Meinberg (since 1970 part of Horn-Bad Meinberg) was first mentioned in 978.
Meinberg is then mentioned as a spa in 1676, when Andreas von Keil (called "Cunaeus") recommends the water of the Meinberg "health well" . In 1762 Johann Erhard Trampel (1737-1817) was commissioned by Count Simon August to investigate the springs. Trampel then was the driving force behind the development of the farming village into a spa. He probably knew near Pyrmont (today Bad Pyrmont), that already had developed into a place where the "jet-set" of the time met, as there was already a casino.

In 1767, Meinberg was officially designated a "health resort" by a decree of the count; in that year. Hotels had to be built to accommodate the guests. The historic spa park was laid out in 1770.

Trampel´s successors laid the foundations for the mud spa, which proved to be a success but it took until 1900 to count 1000 spa guests in one season for the first time.

The increasing numbers of spa guests led to a building boom i the late 1950s and again in the 1970s and 1980s, when three large spa clinics were built. In 1992, the number of spa guests reached its highest level ever with almost 38,000. Since then, due to the structural reform in the health care system, the numbers declined sharply, and at the end of the 1990s, the three spa clinics gradually closed.

The half-timbered house looks a bit run down.

Carved into a beam above the door is the number "1610". Below (barely readable) "Alter Krug". So this was once a pub in which the men took the morning pint on Sundays after the church service (the church is in the backdrop).

Perhaps the declining piety, in the end, led to the closure of the pub. On the left side of the building was a laundry - as there is the word "Wäscherei".