History of the Bad Moos Dolomites Spa Resorts in Sesto

Erwin Lanzinger - Hotelier and tourism visionary
In 2015, the Bad Moos – Dolomites Spa Resort lost its founder, and the Drei Zinnen region lost a great tourism professional. Without a doubt, our boss, who was also president of the Hochpustertal tourism association for many years, enjoyed the status of a tourism pioneer.
With his vision, his tireless commitment and his fighting spirit he paved the way for developments that have had a lasting impact.
He combined courage, tenacity and directness with charm, intelligence and cosmopolitanism.
He was always an opinion leader – a “free spirit”, as he described himself. And a bon vivant.
The ambitious hotelier also set new standards in the area of spa facilities. At the end of the 1970s his hotel boasted the first sauna area in South Tyrol. He had the first jacuzzi imported from America at a time when most people hadn’t heard of them.
Erwin Lanzinger was largely responsible for linking up the ski infrastructure of the Helm and Rotwand ski resorts.

His two philosophies of life can be summarised in two short statements:
“If I want to be successful in the tourism business, I need to be up at the front having a say!” and “Fortune favours the brave!”

Bad Moos – The historic natural spa
People have known about the therapeutic springs at Bad Moos for 350 years. There are records of people coming here to bathe since 1765 and a bath house was built around 1800. Bad Moos became even more widely known during the tourism boom in the 19th century. Sexten (Italian: Sesto) was home to several famous mountaineering families and became the starting point for lots of first ascents of Dolomite peaks. At the beginning of the 20th century, the grand spa guesthouse was offering bathing and drinking cures from three different springs. Today, only one of them is still known: the St. Valentin sulphur spring, a recognised mineral spring.
In 2005, Dr Erwin Lanzinger revived the old natural spa at Hotel Bad Moos and since then the spring water has been used in a variety of ways in the hotel’s spa and health centre. The Bad Moos - Dolomites Spa Resort is one of only five hotels in South Tyrol to have an official spa cure licence.

In the footsteps of WWI soldiers
The Sexten Dolomites were a fiercely contested battleground in the First World War. Guided walks and excursions from the Bad Moos – Dolomites Spa Resort trace the history of the area. At the open-air museum of the Bellum Aquilarum association on Anderter Alpe/Bellum Aquilarum, for instance, you can see military positions from the First World War.

The Bellum Aquilarum association was founded by Erwin Lanzinger and Sexten residents. It aims to document the events at the front in the Sexten Dolomites and to raise awareness of and a feeling of responsibility for the horrors of the war.
Further information is available on the website of the Bellum Aquilarum historical association’s website http://www.bellumaquilarum.it/englisch/