History
Donat - Rogaška from the depths
In January 1908 Dr Joseph Knett breathed a deep sigh of relief. From the earth's fissures in the construction cave in the middle of the health spa resort park at Rogaška Slatina there flowed a highly mineralised water, just as he had predicted. The main geologist at Karlovy Vary was right when he persuaded the owners of the springs at Rogaška to carry out a radical reorganisation for the capturing of the springs. His research and the research of his colleagues from Gradec showed that a nearby stream, which ran along its own springs, was the main source of the oscillation of mineralisation of Rogaška water and that by digging under this level they would break through to the layer where the Rogaška water was pure. However, a surprise followed. It's pureness was enriched with a high magnesium content - the water from the new spring was totally different from any known Rogaška water up to that time, so that it was necessary to give it a specific name and, in particular, to prepare for its balneological usage and bottling. Its designated title Donat was traced to a name nearby, after the likeness of Rogaška Slatina's characteristic Donačka Gora (Donačka mountain). |
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The source of the mineral water Donat, 1908 |
Dr Knett's idea was to rearrange the springs of Rogaška so that the water from the stream would not be able to gain access into the springs. To this end, in the north-eastern part of the health spa resort park they out dug a cave area 40 m x 8 m x 8 m large. They surrounded the entire area with concrete and in this way protected it from an influx of any other water. As a conduit for the mineral water to the individual pavilions and to the filling stations they simultaneously laid a pipeline and erected electric pumps. For the final part of the project, they caught the springs in a large underground artificially dammed area and they poured the earth onto it. This underground complex was named Knetteum after its creator. The 1922 publicity brochure depicted it as an underground wonder. "So we must call by name a cellar 8 metres deep under the earth (with steps from a small tower behind the Donat spring) where a guest can see with his own eyes how carbon acid and all the other precious gases are driven, with their own strength, upwards from the bowels of the earth through the rocky crevices of the remedial spring. These springs are each directed along metal pipes to their own taproom just as in a gigantic water accumulating area where they are filling up bottles with the famous mineral enriched water and dispatching them around the length and breadth of the world".
At the beginning of the 20th century the faith of the construction engineers and the geologists in the impermeability of the concrete, in this new building material, came apart in the first twenty years after the discovery of Donat. Knetteum was not impermeable. Dr Adolf Režek, a university professor from Zagreb and who had supervised at Rogaška, had already in 1931 given a warning concerning the demineralisation of the water. He ascertained that the concrete walls of Knetteum were not successful in preventing the mixing of the mineral water with water from the nearby stream or preventing the access to the spring being damaged by rain water. Because of this and because of the decline in the plentifulness of the spring they decided at Rogaška Slatina, not long after the Second World War, to radically sanitise the spring's water processing machinery. This decision followed the exceptional find of the mineralised Rogaška water- of Donat Mg. |
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Capturing the source of the mineral water Donat, 1908 |
It was necessary to urgently sanitise the Rogaška spring and that any such sanitisation had to be permanent - about this there was no question. Because they did not wish to repeat the problems of the old Knetteum, they had to come up with a radical solution. The sanitation of the wells with a well system had clearly shown itself not to be successful and sanitation carried out in a similar way, but essentially deeper, was not assured of a successful outcome. The hydrogeologist academic Josip Bać from Sarajevo spoke in favour of the concept of depth drilling. With this he was successful, because the Commission accepted this as the best method of sanitisation, despite the high risk factor, namely that something could go wrong and the renowned mineral enriched springs would be adversely affected. Bać's concept was proven to be accurate as, soon after its commencement on 6 July 1952, large quantities of Rogaška water began to spew forth from a depth of 32 m. This water column was as high as 10 m.
The achievement of professor Bać was introduction to the large hydrogeological activity in the spring region of Rogaška Slatina. During 1952-1958 they jointly drilled as many as 41 research wells, of which the deepest extended to a depth of 87 m. This was ten times deeper than for the capturing of the water at Knetteum. The wells collectively yielded around 60 m3 of water a day, which was five times more than the amount of water which Knetteum had yielded prior to its last sanitation. After 1958 they commenced with geological research into the new sources of mineral water in the surrounding area of Rogaška Slatina. The depth of the wells was continuously increased, with the deepest now extending 606 m under the surface of the earth. With these wells the modern capturing of the water reached into the primary aquifer. Meteoric and surface waters did not reach this primary aquifer; however they did reach the Rogaška water, created from thousands of years of enrichment with minerals. |
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The fashioned source of the mineral water Donat, 1908 |
The story of the discovery of Donat and its contemporary variant Donat Mg, is connected with problems at Rogaška and an attempt to make these problems disappear. It was worth the trouble as the efforts and resources put into Rogaška were in proportion to its reputation, which sprung forth from its centuries-old tradition. Investing in it was investing into a verified winning product. Up until the moment when Donat Mg was discovered, they had already bottled at least two billion litres, and from then on a further half a billion litres. So its story does not originate in the depths, but on the surface, by the springs in the middle of today's health spa resort park at Rogaška Slatina where, since 1819, the Tempel pavilion is to be found.
In the springs there were findings from Celtic and Roman times and these confirmed the use of Rogaška in antiquity. The documented history of Rogaška goes back as far as 1572, when the first analysis (known to us) was carried out. Its use grew with the development of medical science and grew stronger as it became more established. Around 1670 a turn of events occurred with the intervention of Dr Paul Sorbait, a doctor in the Hapsburg court and a professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Vienna. With the obvious successes which the court doctor achieved in his medical treatments using Rogaška water, nobody could be in doubt as to its effectiveness and the inquiries regarding this water soon increased to such an extent that it was necessary to systematically begin to research the water and bottle it. As a saleable commodity, this water proved to be phenomenally successful. In the same way as the court doctor, other doctors in Vienna and elsewhere around the empire started to prescribe different treatments to their patients, whilst in the Graz hospital they were testing it as a clinical medicine. In 1685 the first scientific monograph was published on this topic when the Maribor physicist Johann Benedikt Gründel wrote "Roitschocrene". |
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Knetteum, The site construction, January 1908 |
At the end of the 17th century there was a great battle for the rights of who was to use Rogaška water. Baron Courty, who was the owner of the Rogaška estate, was in a dispute with the priest of Svet Križ who, in a century old tradition, was called upon to be the Rogaška keeper and also to look after the spiritual well-being of the visitors to its springs and the neighbouring farmers. In addition, to end the fight the Emperor Leopold passed a decree concerning the general use of Rogaška water, however at that time a fight began for the rights of its distribution. Initially this task was entrusted to the singularly deserving townspeople of Vienna, but in 1721 it passed to the Viennese Association of Pharmacists. They organised the springs and after three years had successfully sold over 20,000 bottles of Rogaška. With the abolishment of the society in 1782, the use of Rogaška once again became unsupervised.
At the beginning of the 19th century a Styrian provincial head, Count Ferdinand Attems, was leading the extensive activities of the provincial classes in order to repurchase the piece of land around the Rogaška springs. The provincial classes wanted once and for always to prevent unsupervised and unprofessional usage of the springs and wanted to create a modern provincially-led health spa. Medical circles, all the forward thinking public and the Count's court assisted with this. With this action the development of the health spa resort at Rogaška Slatina commenced in 1801, founded on the Rogaška mineral enriched water. Through this act Rogaška undoubtedly became a part of the history of the European balneology and European union in general. In 1869 Rogaška was the world's third most sold water and, directly after the mineral water from Vichy and Selters, people were familiar with it and drank it all over the world. Its distributor, the provincial Health Spa Resort at Rogaška Slatina, at an exhibition in Chicago in 1893 earned a medal for its quality. This was a water which, as fate would have it, required large sanitational works on the springs at Rogaška Slatina. The water's properties, from which for centuries medical treatments had been prepared and also balneological procedures were, with the discovery of Donat, only its partial properties. Because of Donat's high mineral content, new research, new balneological methods, new ways in which to use it and new technological procedures for bottling were required - today these still have a century old tradition. |
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Knetteum, The site construction, January 1908
The images are held in the Historical archives at Celje |
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