One of the natural mineral water springs in
Rhineland-Palatinate in the Koblenz urban area is the once regionally
well-known "Dähler Born". "Dahl" or "Thal" is an
old name for the settlement in the valley below the fortress Ehrenbreitstein,
the name Ehrenbreitstein originally only referred to the castle on the mountain
top, "Born" is the name of a water spring.
The first mention of the sour water spring is in
the year 1327, still marked as "Schwalborn", named after the Junkers
of Schwalborn, related to the castle men of the neighbouring fortress
Ehrenbreitstein and castle Helfenstein.
Later, in 1584, the scribe Jakob Theodor praised
the health benefits of water. During the construction of the fortifications in
Dahl and on Ehrenbreitstein, the now renovated and rebuilt fountain house was
built around 1820/21 and leased to the owners for 5000 guilders. The water has
always been brought with clay jugs to the neighboring villages. Today, for a
donation, you can only get some acidulous water from the well yourself. The
stone fountain inside the classicistic plaster building consists of a vertical
fountain floor with a square ground plan and an octagonal ground plan of the
fountain pot. On the fountain there are different dates, which indicate the
repairs in different centuries. The last one took place in 1994.