The memorial to Franz Ambrosius Reuss and his son August Emanuel von Reuss is situated between the spring and the Bílina spa building. Both these spa physicians are credited with developing spa treatment, as well as with shaping science’s view of geology. While Reuss senior was mainly a descriptive geognostic, his son was a pioneer of modern geology in the second half of the 19th century. The memorial was unveiled in 1898.

The fate of the memorial reflected that of the local spa and the original opulent marble balustrade was stolen and destroyed.

In a sense this sentence also reflects the overlapping of Czech-German culture in the 19th century. It is hard to write “Czech history” in North Bohemia without admitting that most of the figures in the history of this region spoke German.

The memorial is classed as a cultural monument and is still maintained, although the surrounding balustrades, sculptures and stairs are damaged.

In 2011 celebrations were held in honour of the jubilee 250th anniversary of the birth of F. A. Reuss and the 200th anniversary of the birth of his son, August Emanuel. Naturalists and historians came together to mark this occasion and reminisce about the lives of these men, which not only illustrate the Bohemian-German overlap, but also the development of how the Earth sciences were perceived. This legacy has been rediscovered and symbolically highlighted through the care of the Regional Museum in Teplice.

Krutský, N.: Jubilejní oslavy Franze Ambrose a Augusta Emanuela Reusse v Bílině. Zpravodaj české geologické spolecnosti, 2012 URL: www.geologickaspolecnost.cz/soubory/zpravodaj/zpravodaj-cgs14.pdf [27. 1. 2020]

Matoušek, O.: Dějiny československé geologie. Mladá generace československých přírodovědců a zeměpisců. Praha. 1935

“In memory of these highly deserving German-Czech scholars, dedicated by their compatriots” (Author: )

Reuss Memorial at Bílina spa (Author: Anna Hermannová)