– 30 April 1906 Sankt Thomas

Sankt Thomas

Sankt Thomas is a village in the district Bitburg-Prüm, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated in the Eifel. The name refers to the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket....

, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (now Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

)) was a Swiss natural healer and physician

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

.

Rikli proposed various therapies, mostly based on exposing the body to sun and air, called sun tanning

Sun tanning

Sun tanning or simply tanning is the process whereby skin color is darkened or tanned. The process is most often a result of exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun or from artificial sources, such as a tanning bed, but can also be a result of windburn or reflected light...

, preferably done while naked. He is one of the forefathers of a movement called naturism

Naturism

Naturism or nudism is a cultural and political movement practising, advocating and defending social nudity in private and in public. It may also refer to a lifestyle based on personal, family and/or social nudism....

 today.

History

Rikli was born in a wealthy Swiss family as one of the third sons. His father was a famous man who was involved with politics

Politics

Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...

 and had his own fabric

Fabric

A fabric is a textile material, short for "textile fabric".Fabric may also refer to:*Fabric , the spatial and geometric configuration of elements within a rock*Fabric , a nightclub in London, England...

. Fathers wish was that his sons would inherit his knowledge and ambitions, therefore he sent Rikli and his brother Karl in the village Seebach

Seebach

-Places:*Seebach, Baden-Württemberg: a town in the district of Ortenau in Baden-Württemberg in Germany*Seebach, Thuringia: a municipality in the Wartburgkreis district in Thuringia in Germany*Seebach, Bas-Rhin: a municipality in the Département Bas-Rhin in France...

 near Klagenfurt

Klagenfurt

-Name:Carinthia's eminent linguists Primus Lessiak and Eberhard Kranzmayer assumed that the city's name, which literally translates as "ford of lament" or "ford of complaints", had something to do with the superstitious thought that fateful fairies or demons tend to live around treacherous waters...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

. There they build a new fabric for leather

Leather

Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...

 painting. Because of the contact with the chemicals, Rikli got very sick and was facing a hard diarrhea

Diarrhea

Diarrhea , also spelled diarrhoea, is the condition of having three or more loose or liquid bowel movements per day. It is a common cause of death in developing countries and the second most common cause of infant deaths worldwide. The loss of fluids through diarrhea can cause dehydration and...

. He was looking for a place to rest and heal himself. He found Bled

Bled

Bled is a municipality in northwestern Slovenia in the region of Upper Carniola. The area, within the Julian Alps, is a popular tourist destination.-History:...

 in Slovenia

Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

 and went there in 1852 for the first time. He liked all things about Bled from the surroundings to fresh air, climate and water. He was healed soon. He was so much fascinated about Bled, that he developed one of the European healing centres after two years, so called helio-hydroscopic treatment. He abandoned the family business and started his own healing method in Bled instead. His healing was founded on swimming in cold water, sun tanning and walking. For him the air, sun and water were the source of health. His famous quote was "Water is good, air is better and most of all the sunlight". Guests were residing in special houses, washing in tubs and walking naked in the surroundings area, most of all on the neighbouring hill called Straža, where today is a ski

Skiing

Skiing is a recreational activity using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding....

, walking, trim and skeleton

Skeleton (sport)

Skeleton is a fast winter sliding sport in which an individual person rides a small sled down a frozen track while lying face down, during which athletes experience forces up to 5g. It originated in St. Moritz, Switzerland as a spin-off from the popular British sport of Cresta Sledding...

 area. Unfortunately, Rikli wasn't very popular among the local people, he was thinking of them as a village people and locals though about Rikli as a weirdo. They were very ashamed about Rikli's health tourism, because the people were walking around naked in the park. Even that Rikli lived 52 years in Bled he never learned the Slovenian language and never accepted the local customs. The guiding tables in the park were written in German language. Locals have nicknamed Rikli as "Švajcar" (Swiss guy), because he came from Switzerland or "Sun doctor", because he promoted sun tanning.

Rikli's contribution to health tourism in Bled, Slovenia

Among first visitors of Bled were probably the pilgrim

Pilgrim

A pilgrim is a traveler who is on a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journeying to some place of special significance to the adherent of a particular religious belief system...

s, which came from various parts of Slovenia and Friuli–Venezia Giulia and were visiting the church on Bled island. Rikli was among the first people who noticed the healing effect of the natural environment in Bled. He has created baths, walking paths, hiking paths and housing. In the year 1895 he has built a wooden house and baths in Swiss style and a hospital with his own examination office. Because the word spread across Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 about the healing power of Bled, they built a larger swimming place in 1899. Beside the people who were looking for healing, Bled started to attract people, who wanted to spend their hollidays in a healthy and clean environment. The number of visitors started to raise in 1870, after the new railway connection between Ljubljana

Ljubljana

Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...

 and Tarvisio

Tarvisio

Tarvisio is a town in the Province of Udine, in the northeastern part of the autonomous Friuli–Venezia Giulia region in Italy...

, where the place got his own railway station in Lesce

Lesce

Lesce is a town in the Radovljica municipality in the Upper Carniola region of Slovenia. It is an industrial as well as a tourist centre.It is one of the oldest mentioned settlements in the region, first noted in a document from 1004 together with Bled and Bohinj...

. In the year 1903 Bled was awarded with a gold medal

Gold medal

A gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture...

 on international fair of healing places in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, in the year 1906 Bled was classified among the best tourist destinations in Austro-Hungarian Empire. The healing place was operating until first world war, and was later abandoned. Rikli has received a statue at his 50th healing anniversary. His methods combined with the new therapy are continued at present times in Hotel Golf in medico-regenerative programs. Every year, starting with July, Bled organizes Rikli's sport days and hiking on Rikli's paths. At that time hikers walk, run and climb on the hills above Bled and talk about the healing powers of Rikli. Rikli's Villa is under the cultural guidance, but it is sadly falling apart. The owner of the building is Nicholas Oman.