Barbarossa-Quelle
Exposure: 11. September 1837 durch die Stadt Soden
Depth: zunächst 6 m
Drilling depth: 10 m, jetzt 11,70 m
Temperature: 14,2 Grad
Use: for bathing purposes
as a drinking source in the spa and bathhouse (inaugurated in 1881), then in the new spa house (inaugurated in 1886)
The source has not been used since around 1989.
A cow that often greedily licked a strangely discolored part of its pasture aroused the curiosity of some Soden residents, who soon investigated the cause with pick and shovel. They came across a well shaft in a wonderful, careful setting made of oak planks and lead casing. At a depth of around 10 m, an artfully made cuboid tunnel led sideways into the rock. When the foaming brine with the powerful carbonic acid flowed into the main shaft, two workers died.
The news of the sudden rediscovery of the so-called "old Salzborn" in September 1837 spread widely and caused a great stir. The daily newspapers of Fulda and Hanau reported extensively on the “discovery of a strange mineral spring” in Bad Soden near Salmünster.
This spring was certainly used for salt production around 1000 years ago. After Soden was pledged to the then Archbishopric of Mainz, salt boiling was stopped in favor of Bad Orb, which also belonged to Mainz. The well shafts of Soden gradually fell into oblivion. By the beginning of 1800, their location could no longer even be determined.
After the discovery, the Salmünster magistrate Georg Philipp Christian Ludwig Udet (1793-1857) and the then Soden city council under Mayor Sperzel made intensive efforts to use the healing water. When bathing operations began, the brine was used in 6 bathing cells in the Huttenschloß from 1875 to 1881.
Around 1880, Balthasar Emmerich, co-owner of the bathing company, gave the Salzborn the name Barbarossa Spring after Emperor Friedrich I of Hohenstaufen, known as Barbarossa / Emperor Redbeard.
The pharmacist Elsing made salted caramels from the brine from the Barbarossa spring and sent them out in small tin cans.
The efforts of the then mayor Georg Sperzel to set up a swimming pool were not successful. His appeal to “capitalists” was also unsuccessful.