St. John's Fountain

The miracle water that our Archduke also drank

Managing Director Constantin Liebe-Kreutzner with the typical Johannisbrunnen glass bottles.(Bild: Christian Jauschowetz)

The Johannisbrunnen fountain in Straden in south-eastern Styria bubbles up from a spring that is thousands of years old. The "Styrian Prince" ennobled the healing water.

She was a marketing genius of the early 19th century: Johanna Reybauer, an efficient merchant from Marburg and tenant of the "Brunns zu Straden" at the time, spontaneously asked Archduke Johann if she could name the popular healing water after him. The "Styrian Prince" nodded benevolently and granted her the naming rights - and so the bubbling spring has been called "Johannisbrunnen" since 1819. His name is forever the highest splendor of this healing fountain", is written in golden letters on a noble marble plaque, which Constantin Liebe-Kreutzner proudly shows us. The Managing Director of Gleichenberger & Johannisbrunnen GmbH shows us around the company in the Johannisbrunn district of Straden, where the legendary healing water is bottled in glass and PET bottles and then sold locally and in grocery stores.

The Johannisbrunn fountain was built on the spot where the water came out of the ground(Bild: Gleichenberg & Johannisbrunnen GmbH)

Many Styrians appreciate a glass or two of it when they suffer from heartburn after eating too much. Many people who swear by Johannisbrunnen confirm that "it helps". Its effectiveness has also been scientifically confirmed. The "miracle substance" in the water from the depths is called hydrogen carbonate. "It neutralizes excess stomach acid," explains Liebe-Kreutzner. Calcium, magnesium and sodium are also added as ingredients.

Healthy deep water from volcanic rock
How do the minerals get into the southeast Styrian water? The source is two volcanoes that have been extinct for millions of years: the Stradner Kogel and the Gleichenberger Kogel. "As the final act of volcanic activity, natural carbonic acid rises from a magma hearth in the earth's interior and combines with the water of the Johannisbrunnen at a depth of thousands of meters," explains the Managing Director. On its journey to the earth's surface, this deep water dissolves many minerals and trace elements from the rock with the help of the carbonic acid. "Finally, it gushes out of the well under its own steam as natural healing water."

Plaque in honor of the spring's namesake: Archduke Johann(Bild: Christian Jauschowetz)

Farmers filled their jugs in the old days
Centuries ago, farmers filled their jugs with the 10,000-year-old water. "They knew that it was clean because the carbon dioxide kept it germ-free," says Liebe-Kreutzner, who is the great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson of Matthias Constantin Graf von Wickenburg. The governor of the Duchy of Styria founded the spa town of Bad Gleichenberg and established the "Gleichenberger & Johannisbrunnen GmbH Actien-Verein" in 1834. He also acquired the ownership rights to the Johannisbrunnen fountain.

Its history goes back as far as 1678
However, its history goes back much further, to the first mention in 1678. In 1777, Empress Maria Theresa's personal physician, Prof. Heinrich von Crantz, analyzed the spring and attributed healing properties to it for the first time. The rest is a success story.

Today, 2.8 million liters leave the bottling plant every year(Bild: Christian Jauschowetz)

In 1842, the clay jugs are replaced by glass bottles, and in 1970 an automatic bottling plant for glass bottles is installed. "Today we fill 2.8 million liters a year."

And many residents still make a pilgrimage to the plant, where they can also draw the "miracle water" themselves from a pipe directly at the source.