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Levico Terme:
A proposal for good healthLevico Terme is located about 20 kilometres from Trento: a small city (elevated to that rank pursuant to the Imperial decree issued on 21 December 1898), located on the banks of the Rio Maggiore, it extends from the banks of Lake Maggiore up to the slopes of Mount Fronte. On Mount Fronte, 1500 meters above sea level, emerge two waterways whose waters are defined respectively as "potent" and "weak" to describe their concentration of mineral substances. The water courses are born from two different springs: the "potent" water rises to the surface from the bottom of a tunnel excavated by miners in medieval times which was called the Caverna del Vetriolo ("Sulphate Cave"), while the "weak" water bubbles up in the "Caverna dell’Orca", located 100 meters farther down the mountain from the former. 
The unexpected discovery made by the miners led them to use the potent water as an aid in extracting the green sulphate from the cave and only afterwards did people understand the waters curative properties. The first treatments performed using the mineral-rich water were made exclusively in Vetriolo and only later did Levico develop as a mineral springs spa, mainly due to the difficulty in reaching the location of the mountain town.
Remedies using the water were the subject of polemics, but nonetheless it had its followers. In 1860 a "Bathing Society" was founded by a group of Levico citizens and in 1897, the "Berlinese Society" was founded, which later also took over organization of the mineral springs. The Berlinese Society became the driving force behind use of the waters and ordered construction of new spa facilities, today known as the Grand Hotel delle Terme, in addition to a bottling plant and an access road to the town of Vetriolo. Tourism flourished, more and more visitors arrived and new and innovative services were offered until the outbreak of World War I. After the war ended, the town administration of Levico took over management of the local mineral springs spa. In 1930, the State Property Administration became the new owners of the land, ordering a new mineral springs resort to be constructed, secluded in the pine woods of Vetriolo. With establishment of the Trentino Alto Adige Region, ownership of the Levico and Vetriolo Mineral Springs was transferred to the Region, which tackled the issue of renovating the old buildings and promoting tourism in Levico with construction of a new and modern spa facility. The new spa was completed in the Seventies. In 1973, with issue of the standards for implementing the Special Charter of the Trentino Alto Adige, the entire mineral springs area was transferred to the administration of the Province of Trento. 
Earlier, we mentioned the two types of water: the "potent" water and the "weak" water. In actual fact, this distinction refers exclusively to the concentration of the mineral elements, which are the same in both water springs. The mineral waters of the Levico and Vetriolo Mineral Springs are classified according to their chemical and physical composition. The water is considered arsenical and chalybeate, for the high content of arsenic and iron. The waters of the mineral springs basin are very acidic due to the high doses of sulphuric ions and phosphorous but they also present other valuable minerals such as copper, manganese, nickel, cobalt, and zinc that work together to achieve the general and local, specific and non-specific biological action of the mineral springs. |
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