Cathrine Stukhard 

Cathrine Stukhard © Natali Glisic

The “Great Spa Towns of Europe” are an exceptional testimony to a European spa phenomenon that saw its peak from 1700 to the 1930s. This transnational heritage includes the eleven most modern, dynamic and international spa towns among hundreds of spa towns that also contributed to the European spa phenomenon. Together they were inscribed by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee as Great Spa Towns of Europe on 24 July 2021: Baden bei Wien (Austria); Spa (Belgium); Karlovy Vary, Františkovy Lázně 

and Mariánské Lázně (Czech Republic); Vichy (France), Bad Ems, Baden-Baden and Bad Kissingen (Germany); Montecatini Terme (Italy); and City of Bath (United Kingdom). Although each spa town is different, they all developed around mineral water springs, which were the catalyst for a spatial organisational model. The spa industry in the baths was literally ennobled by a round of social events in casinos, theatres, hotels and villas. The exhibition by Cathrine Stukhard introduces us to Vichy, the „queen of all spas“.Cathrine Stukhard completed her photographic education at „die Graphische“ in Vienna, where already her grandfather was a student. Her reportage-like style was well received in the advertising world and she was soon hired for advertising campaigns and developed image concepts for companies. Magazine commissions followed and her images appeared in Geo Saison, Geo, Merian, Terra Mater, Servus Magazin, Stern, Lufthansa Magazin, SZ Wissen, among others. Her exhibition „Walking On“ about the Mauthausen concentration camp was shown at the Memorial Mauthausen, Austria, the USA and Canada.