Bad Elster

Bad Elster is a spa town in the Vogtlandkreis district, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It lies on the border of Bavaria and the Czech Republic in the Elster gebirge hills. It is situated on the river White Elster, and is protected from extremes of temperature by the surrounding wooded hills. It is 25 km southeast of Plauen, and 25 km northwest of Cheb. The B 92 runs close by.It is part of the Freunde im Herzen Europas microregion.HistoryElster before 1900Two kilometers north west of the town centre lies the remains of a twelfth-century walled village, known today as the "Alte Schloss" or "Old Castle". This was first documented in 1324.1412 a manor was sold to the von Zedtwitz family, who held it until 1800.1533 the Reformation reaches Adorf and its daughter church in Elster, and the first Protestant pastor was installed in 1540.The healing properties of the waters from the spring now known as the Moritzquelle were recognised well before, Georg Leisner, physician to the Duke Moritz von Sachsen-Zeitz, wrote in 1669 that inhabitants of both Adorf and Elster come to the spring to take the waters, and he had successfully used them on many different patients.One famous visitor was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who came in 1795. He mentions the spring at Elster in his work Hermann and Dorothea.(Bad) Elster in the 19th and 20th centuryElster became an independent parish in 1851. In 1892 the old St. Peter und Paul church was demolished and replaced with the Revival Gothic, St. Trinitatiskirche.