Elster before 1800 Two kilometres north west of the town centre lies the remains of a twelfth-century walled village, known today as the "Alte Schloss" or "Old Castle". This was first documented in 1324. In 1412 a manor was sold to the von Zedtwitz family, who held it until 1800. In 1533 the
Reformation reached
Adorf and its daughter church in Elster, and the first Protestant pastor was installed in 1540. The healing properties of the waters from the spring now known as the Moritzquelle were recognised well before Georg Leisner, physician to the
Duke Moritz von Sachsen-Zeitz, wrote in 1669 that inhabitants of both Adorf and Elster come to the spring to take the waters, and he had successfully used them on many different patients. One famous visitor was
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who came in 1795. He mentions the spring at Elster in his work
Hermann and Dorothea.
(Bad) Elster in the 19th and 20th century Elster became an independent parish in 1851. In 1892 the old St. Peter und Paul church was demolished and replaced with the Revival Gothic, St. Trinitatiskirche. Elster was promoted to be the "Königlich-Sächsischen Staatsbad", official royal spa of Saxony in 1848. With that the visitor numbers rose: 1848: 129; 1850: 378, 1860: 1,750, 1870: 2,450, 1890: 5,870, 1900: 8,900, 1990: 15,600. Elster prepended the
Bad, meaning "spa", in 1875,
Bad Elster became its official name in 1935. In 1880,
Bademuseum Bad Elster opened; it was the first museum in the town and in
Vogtland, but was short lived. A new museum opened in 1993. == Geography and transport ==