Ramlösa Hälsobrunn
[5] The governorate physician and professor of medicine at Lund University, Johan Jacob Döbelius, drew attention to the well water in Ramlösa at the beginning of the 18th century.
After this, Döbelius wrote about how the water's curative effect counteracted several ailments: Scurvy, trembling of the joints, gout and arthritis, vertigo, headache, respiratory conditions, watery and red eyes and red face, heart palpitations, short temper and mean spirit, constipation, spoiled and hard stomach, constipated liver, jaundice and melancholy, kidney and bladder stones, hysteria, strangury, vaginal catarrh, and this water is also used for all kinds of menstrual disorders.
[6]Young people, not yet educated, who have falling sickness, which is usually caused by an engorged stomach or worms, can also seek health at Ramlösa well.
[7] In 1708, Döbelius published a book entitled Beskrivning om Ramlösa hälso- och surbrunnens uppfinnande, dess belägenhet, natur, verkan och rätta bruk ('Description of the invention of the Ramlösa health and surbrunn, its location, nature, effect and proper use'), in which he tells of patients for whom the mineral water had an effect.
The year after the opening, several patients returned and word of the well spread, especially among the gentry, thanks to Döbelius' dual role as a prominent physician and businessman.
[9] Stobæus had several disciples, among them Carl Linnaeus, and he remained as a well doctor until his death in 1742, although his followers took care of the patients in the later years.
During his visit to Helsingborg, he stayed with the mayor, Petter Pihl the Younger, at his residence Gamlegård [sv], and then travelled from there to Ramlösa mineral spa.
About the well Linnaeus noted: The Ramlösa surbrunn was located a quarter of an hour from Hälsingborg to the south, in as pleasant a place as nature could provide.
[16] During this time, the number of visitors increased considerably and attempts were made to purchase land adjacent to the well so that a new hotel could be built there with room for 200 guests.
[20] With the help of the new share capital of 16,000 riksdaler, it was possible to expand the facility; for example, the well house was rebuilt, a new guesthouse – now the doctor's villa – was added, new stables were built, and four new buildings for guest rooms were constructed.
[22] Due to the many new buildings, the capital soon ran out, which meant that the court marshal Achates von Platen's [sv] proposal to lease Ramlösa Well for 50 years was gladly accepted.
[23] Together with the well doctor Eberhard Zacharias Munck af Rosenschöld, von Platen was responsible for the well's new glory days, von Platen through his investments and expansions of the facility and Munck af Rosenschöld through his contacts who built up the reputation of the mineral spa as a social haven.
The period was depicted by the publicist Bernhard Cronholm [sv] as follows: Through the frequent royal visits, Ramlösa had become a place where the fine world gathered from all over Scania every summer.
The promenades were at certain times of the day filled with exquisite toilettes [elegant dress], while horsemen presented themselves on English thoroughbreds, and a collection of carriages with whirring harnesses and goldsmiths formed brilliant processions on the road between the fountain and the town.
An etiquette as strict as that of a Gustavian court prevailed, and this often resulted in a stiff tone and a way of life which otherwise bore little resemblance to the unpretentiousness required by one who travels to a well to nurse one's health.
[28] During this time, entertainment was lively and several balls and concerts were held at the well, guests could rent horses for excursions, and there were opportunities for card and billiard games.
[29] But when the plans were presented in Stockholm the following year, the king had changed his mind and instead chose to donate a sum of 8,000 riksdaler to the park, to be used to subsidize stays for those who could not afford to rent the well themselves.
Dannfelt's relatives, who had inherited the majority of the shares, transferred the lease to Lieutenant Påhlman in 1842 and then sold it to the manager Olof Westergren.
[32] However, ten of the farmers withdrew the following year, which meant that the well was then owned by the gardener Carl Hultberg and estate owner Jöns Pålsson.
His heirs planned to divide up the surrounding land and sell it off, and at the same time the 50-year lease from 1805 was about to expire, so in 1855 a new company was formed by Scanian businessmen, headed by Ryttmästare (cavalry captain) Rudolf Tornérhjelm, who took over the well.
[36] Wallis refurbished the aging facilities, for example building a bathhouse by the sound, containing both a restaurant and a music pavilion, which he connected to the park with a horse-drawn railway – Sweden's first when it opened in 1877.
[38] Wallis did much to restore the reputation of the well after the somewhat chaotic period, and it was to his credit that the Ramlösa mineral spa survived the end of the 19th century.
All these investments attracted large numbers of visitors, who from 1891 could reach the well by means of a new narrow-gauge railway: the Decauville, or "Little Ghost", as it was also called.
The market had now expanded abroad and, in addition to Denmark, where Ramlösa had long been known, the water was exported to Finland, Great Britain, the Netherlands, France, Turkey, Syria, Mandatory Palestine, and Egypt.
Sales declined during World War II, and instead several of the park buildings were used as refugee facilities for Jews fleeing Denmark during the expanded persecutions that began in 1943.
[53] Then, on 9 April 1945, released prisoners from the German concentration camps arrived in Folke Bernadotte's white buses in Helsingborg and many of them were received at Ramlösa well.
In 1967, AB Ramlösa Brunnsanläggning was established with the aim of creating a year-round well, where the old environment was to be preserved without any radical changes.
[55] According to the well manager Pehr Unge, the water had proved effective against the following diseases: nausea and vomiting in the mornings, constipation, colic, phlegm and insomnia, chest pain and heartburn, flatulence, worms, melancholy, hysteria and convulsions as well as menstrual disorders, gout, rheumatism, contractures, urinary tract disorders, paralysis and even skin conditions.
In front of the main entrance to the hotel, on its northern side, there is an open space paved with gravel and to the north a shrub-fenced garden with fountains and flowers, laid out in the 1930s.
The park is home to a number of unusual trees, including Caucasian wingnut (Pterocarya fraxinifolia), Turkish hazel (Corylus colurna) and dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) around Villa Primula.
