Wolz - Villages

Villages

Bazna village is first attested in a document of 1302. Initially, Saxons had settled to the west, near Boian, but due to the scenic aspect of Bazna valley, moved there and built an imposing fortified church. The church is built in Gothic style and incorporates 13th-century Romanesque elements, with the enclosure walls dating from the 15th and 16th centuries.

When natural gas and spring water containing salt and iodine were discovered in the 18th century, they drew notice from Transylvanian scientists. Among these were the Sibiu pharmacist Georg Bette, who studied the springs after 1752. The priest Andreas Caspari left a manuscript containing his observations for the 1762-1779 period. In it, he describes a number of healing springs, with names he gave them such as "Church spring", "Beggars' spring" and "Bitter fountain". In 1808, the Austrian Empire's officials in Vienna sent a committee of doctors and chemists to Bazna in order to study the healing properties of its salt waters and climate. In 1843, four inhabitants of Mediaş founded a society aimed at building a spa in Bazna; by 1845, 637 people were being treated there. In 1905, Bazna's Lutheran parishioners took control of the spa and its operations. That year, the spa had a pharmacy and specialist doctor, and began producing salt for distribution.