Karlovi Vary, Czech Republic, Spa treatments, Private tours

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The foundation and development of Carlsbad has always been inseparably connected with the soothing curative effect of its warm mineral springs. They marked the history, architecture, economy and the whole spirit of the city. The springs have fascinated people and have stimulated them since the oldest times. The written history of the spa city began on 14 August 1370 when Charles IV granted the existing settlement freedoms and rights enjoyed by the nearby royal city of Loket at that time. The privileged status of Carlsbad as a spa is shown by a great number of granted privileges confirmed by the Bohemian rulers on an ongoing basis until 1858. The Carlsbad spa cure consisted in particular of baths from the Middle Ages until the late 16th century.

The drinking cure started to gain ground more only at the suggestion of the doctor Vaclav Payer who published his first expert book on Carlsbad cure in Leipzig in 1522. In his book, he recommended thermal water drinking besides baths. The local doctors Michael Reudenius and Johann Stephan Strobelberger became other enthusiastic promoters of the drinking cure in Carlsbad after 1600. In the 17th century, the drinking cure started to prevail and resulted even in extremes when 50 - 70 cups of water were drunk in some cases round 1750.

Until the late 17th century, Carlsbad preserved its steep-sided Gothic character with city gates and a close development round the Thermal Spring. The dominant feature of the city was a Gothic tower of the past small hunting castle of Charles IV on the rock over the marketplace. In 1520, a city hall was built below it, next to it there was the city pharmacy and opposite there was the St Spirit Hospital as of 1531. On the right bank of the Tepla River over the Thermal Spring, there used to be a late-gothic half-timbered Maria Magdalena Church, mentioned in 1485 for the first time. Round 1500, the St Andrew Church was consecrated at the hillside of the U tri krizu hill (Three Cross Hill). The houses were timbered with shingle roofs mostly.

The lifelong work of Dr. David Becher (1725 - 1792), a doctor of outstanding merit, had an essential importance for the modernization of Carlsbad balneology. He introduced a number of new curing methods (drinking water at the springs, walks as a part of the therapy, a balance of the drinking and bath cure etc.) and he also contributed to the development of Carlsbad. The promising spa development in the first half of the 18th century was interrupted by a terrible fire destroying 224 buildings on 23 May 1759. The fire consequences, however, were overcome in a short time. The subsequent building of the city after the fire was carried out systematically and in a big way.

Very attractively built stone houses with more floors, with rich plaster facades and covered with over-tile roofs were built instead of the original timbered buildings. In the early 19th century, Carlsbad experienced another balneology boom. The spa prosperity was not jeopardised by the turbulent era of the Napoleonic Wars either. The curing method stipulated by David Becher was developed by a lot of excellent Carlsbad spa doctors further in the first middle of the 19th century. The biggest credit was taken by dr. Jean de Carro (1170 - 1857), dr. Rudolf Mannl (1812 - 1863) and dr. Eduard Hlawaczek (1808 - 1879). The society meeting in Carlsbad in the 18th century and in the early 19th century was getting international more and more. Besides the aristocracy, the European cultural elite liked to come to the Thermal Spring.

Visits of celebrities have been a traditional specificity of Carlsbad and have had an important impact on the cultural history of the city. Let us name for instance Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Theodor Körner, Ludwig van Beethoven, Frederik Chopin and Nikola Paganini among the most significant visitors at the turn of the 19th century. Starting from the second third of the 19th century, the character of the Carlsbad spa society was determined by the rich city clients. Due to the French Revolution, the aristocracy was vanishing step by step from the spa. Carlsbad became a popular location for numerous political and diplomatic negotiations. In 1819, a significant ministerial conference chaired by K. V. L. Metternich, the Austrian Chancellor, took place close to the Thermal Spring. The First World War rang down the curtain on the increasing curve of the spa city development; it was the end of the good old days connected with the spirit of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. It played havoc with the flood of spa guests, and thus it paralysed the whole life of Carlsbad severely. The protracted economic crisis tormenting Europe did not avoid Carlsbad in the 1930s either. At that time, debts of local owners of hotels and boarding houses grew enormously.

On 6 May 1945, the Czech Revolutionary National Committee was set up in Carlsbad, and it took over the city administration without conflict in presence of the American Army two days later. The Red Army entered Carlsbad on 11 May 1945. The building development of Carlsbad in the period of socialism building-up (1948 - 1989) found expression in particular in an enormous housing development. After 1990, a number of prominent historic and spa buildings were renovated, reconstructed or replaced by replicas in a very costly way (Trzni kolonada - Market Colonnade, Sadova kolonada - Colonnade of Orchard, Postovni dvur - Post Office Yard, Male Versailles - Little Versailles, Grandhotel Pupp, Bristol Hotel, the main post-office, spa hotels Imperial, Svycarsky dvur - Swiss Yard, Richmond, Felix Zawojski House, Mozart House, Petr House, Mozart's park, Belvedere of Charles IV, Aberg, Venus, Jean de Carro, Dvorak, Vysehrad, Eliska, Villa Ritter, Sirius, Kolonada Hotels, Krivan-Slovan sanatorium, Zamecke lazne - Castle Baths, the castle in Doubi etc.). Carlsbad, the most famous Czech spa, is still a popular place where both sick and healthy persons from the whole world arrive, which means that they keep supporting the tradition set up centuries ago in the reign of the wise king Charles IV. The international character of Carlsbad and the reputation of its curative springs promise well that the spa city will remain the best-known and most visited place in the Czech Republic besides Prague in the 21st century.

The Secession Style Castle Colonnade fills the space between The Castle Tower (Zamecky vrch) and The Market Colonnade. Today it is an undistinguished complex of buildings formed by the Upper Castle Spring Pavilion, by adjacent premise of the older colonnade and by the Secession Style building by Fridrich Ohman from 1911 - 1913, which was originally built as a site around The Lower Castle Spring. In thirties, a Spring Spirit relief made from brownstone was added to the Colonnade. The buildings forming the Colonnade show all the signs of disrepair. Both steel and concrete elements of the construction served out, because of insufficient maintenance, composition of the buildings and very aggressive environment.

From 1774 till 1820s, a Baroque bath building stood over The Hot Spring, which was replaced by an Empire Style Colonnade in 1826. From 1879 to 1939, the visitors could have admired a cast-iron colonnade built according to design by architects Fellner and Helmer. Sculptures of Hygia and D. Becher by A. Fernkorn were added to the building. In 1935 the Colonnade was replaced by so-called first wooden makeshift; from 1947 to 1969, a "temporary" wooden colonnade according to design by architect Kozák stood in the area of The Hot Spring. The present-day colonnade building by professor Votruba was constructed in the years 1969 - 1975

A wooden building in the Swiss Style was finished in 1993 as a replica of the original Market Colonnade by architects Fellner and Helmer from 1883. The original one was built as a makeshift in place of the old Carlsbad town hall from 1520. The Spring of Charles IV springs in The Market Colonnade under a metal relief with motive of the Spring Discovery. Charles IV, the founder of the town, healed his injuries in the local spring called Glutton (Žrout, or Fresser) and thank heavens the healing was successful. The remnants of the spring pool are still evident in the Colonnade underground.

The Mill Colonnade, called also Zatek's Colonnade, is the largest Carlsbad colonnade and one of the symbols of the town. It was built according to a project by Josef Zatek, an architect, whose bust is placed near The Mill Spring, in the years 1871 - 1881. The New Renaissance Style building is 132 meters long and 13 meters wide. It covers five springs - The Mill Spring, The Rock Spring, The Libuse's, The Count Wenceslas', and The Water Nymph's Springs (in Czech Mlynska, Skalni, Libusin, Knezete Vclava and Rusalcin). The colonnade has 124 columns; the colonnade orchestra podium is decorated by allegoric relieves by a Carlsbad sculptor, Vaclav Lokvenc. Twelve allegoric sculptures representing months of the year stand on the baluster railing of the roof terrace .

The Park Colonnade was built from cast-iron prefabricated elements in 1881. It was a part of concert hall and park restaurant - called The Blanenska Pavilion, which was designed by Vienna architects Fellner and Helmer. The Colonnade functioned as a promenade connecting The Park Spring springing in the basement of Military Balneal Institute, with the concert hall. Nowadays, The Park Colonnade has shape of rectangle, on which ends there are hexagonal pavilions crowned by domes with lanterns. Both the pavilions and the connecting promenade are formed by open arcades decorated by ornamental plant and figural embellishment.

Many visitors and guests take beautiful glass and porcelain products home with them from Karlovy Vary. The Moser glassworks started in 1857, and its products adorn the most beautiful table settings throughout the world. As a result of the high quality of the raw materials, the products of several porcelain works - notably those in Stara Role, Dvory, Louèky, Sadov, Chodov, Loket and Nova Role - have acquired an international reputation under the name "Karlovy Vary porcelain".

The history of Karlovy Vary wafers goes back to 1640, when guests were offered the aromatic, light, crispy wafers as part of the treatment. At first they were home-made, but then there was a great expansion in manufacturing and they became a welcome gift from spa guests to their friends back home. The firm Phobos s r.o. - Cornia s r.o. Karlovy Vary manufactures genuine Karlovy Vary wafers according to the original recipe and without chemical additives. The typical Karlovy Vary souvenirs of petrified roses and various other petrified objects also receive great acclaim. Geyser water is a natural chemical solution in which the change of the physical-chemical conditions that occurs when the water comes up through the ground results in an accumulation of limestone sinter. The sinter accumulates on everything, and this is the origin of the so-called "petrified" souvenirs; various objects and roses impregnated with a greaseproofing agent are suspended beneath a shower of geyser water, and within seven to ten days they are covered with a crust of Karlovy Vary sinter - they are petrified.

Becherovka, the Karlovy Vary herbal liqueur, is a well-known and popular Karlovy Vary speciality. Production started in 1805 in the pharmacy of the Becher family according to a recipe from the English physician Dr Frobrig given to his friend Josef Becher. Larger-scale production began in 1807. Karlovy Vary cosmetics, various toothpastes, bath additives, herbal preparations and so forth are manufactured in the factory Vridlo - vyrobni druzstvo.

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