Karlovy Vary tourist information
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. A story of the fantasy world is the popular story according to which Carlsbad springs were discovered by Charles IV, the Czech king and Roman Emperor, at a deer hunting in the middle of the 14th century. The foundation of the spa city at the confluence of the Ohře and Teplá Rivers in the reign of Charles IV is sure not to be such an accidental and romantic act as said in the old story, but almost a regular development result for a long-known place with a curative tradition.
The precise date of the city foundation is not known. The emergence of a permanent settlement close to the Thermal Spring dates back to the period round 1349. However, people lived the surroundings of Carlsbad much earlier. An archaeological research evidenced several settlement localities from the prehistoric times (Tašovice, Dvory, and Drahovice) on the territory of the current city. Settlement of ancient inhabitants of this region in the later times is supported by the site of an ancient settlement in Drahovice where people lived in the late Bronze Age. A Slavic settlement is recorded near Carlsbad for instance in Tašovice and Sedlec. It was clearly established that people lived in the immediate vicinity of later Carlsbad as far back as the 13th century. We suppose that they knew the curative effects of Carlsbad thermal water and that they used it for cure.
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 Václav 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.
The prosperity and building development of the spa were negatively affected by two natural disasters in the late 16th century and in the early 17th century. On 9 May 1583, Carlsbad suffered a big flood. On 13 August 1604, the city was completely destroyed by a fire, during which 99 buildings of 102 ones burnt down. The hardships of the Thirty Years' War did not avoid Carlsbad either though it had a privileged status as a spa. During the War, the city was exposed to ravages of armies, fires, diseases and starvation for several times. The turbulent period and adverse economic consequences of the war years reflected themselves in particular in a severe decrease of the number of spa visitors, and thus in the decline of the general economic growth of the city. Thus, the inhabitants of Carlsbad had to look for other means of earning in living besides the balneology. For this reason typical Carlsbad handicrafts - pewterer's shops, gun and rifle manufacture, needle manufacture and factory making cutlery - were developing gradually in the 17th century. The spa life was boosted much more due to a flood of rich aristocratic visitors from the Saxon and later also the Russian and Polish ruling courts in the late 17th century. Two spa stays of the Russian czar Peter the Great in 1711 and 1712 meant a great promotion of Carlsbad.
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 Teplá River over the Thermal Spring, there used to be a late-gothic half-timbered Maří Magdalena Church, mentioned in 1485 for the first time. Round 1500, the St Andrew Church was consecrated at the hillside of the U tří křížů hill (Three Cross Hill). The houses were timbered with shingle roofs mostly.
The 18th century brought long decades of flowering and fame to the spa city. In 1707, the Emperor Josef I confirmed Carlsbad all of its privileges, while he called it a royal free city expressly. In the first half of the 18th century, Carlsbad was in very good graces of the Hapsburgs, in particular of Maria Theresia. The loyal relations of the city with the Viennese court became positively evident in the financial subsidies for the city development and in the improvement of its management. In 1719, the city council issued special city laws that governed the whole spa life in details. In 1739, new city rules "Instruction politica" were approved. In relation to the balneology development, a number of society and spa buildings were built, for instance the Saxon Hall in 1701 or the Bohemian Hall in 1728. At those places, the Granhotel Pupp was built later. In 1711, Mlýnské lázně (Mill Baths), the first public spa facility in Carlsbad, were built at the place of the present Mlýnský pramen (Mill Spring). In the early 18th century, the city started to grow; Stará louka was built up, which became a social life centre for spa guests. In 1717, the spa had its first modest theatre. In 1732 - 1736, the new Baroque St. Máří Magdalena Cathedral was built according to the architect Kilian Ignác Diezenhofer's plans instead of the original Gothic church.
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.
The original city gates hindering the city extension were not renewed any more. More and more spa guests were coming to the renewed and beautiful city. The Carlsbad citizens were getting richer thanks to the increasing number of visitors, and that is why they could improve the city appearance through more expensive building modifications. The financing of these modifications was also provided by revenues from the spa tax introduced in 1795. In 1762, Mlýnské lázně (the Mill Baths) were refurbished. In 1777, a modern Thermal Spring Hall was set up, which was a reflection of the application of Dr. David Becher's curing principles stressing the water drinking directly at the spring. Starting from 1764, thermal salt was produced and exported at instigation of Dr. Becher again. The building of a new theatre in 1788 was partially funded by the money received from the salt sale. In 1791, Poštovní dvůr (Post Office Yard), a popular picnic spot of the spa guests, was built, it became famous thanks to concerts of Josef Labitzký's orchestra and various famous musicians. The wooden colonnade of Nový Pramen (New Spring) set up one year later was the first building of this kind in Carlsbad. The spa guests could come to the springs even with bad weather. In 1811, the colonnade was rebuilt by the building contractor Giessel from Dresden. The Bohemian Hall became the most popular social centre of the aristocracy in the late 18th century; in 1775, it was bought by Johann Georg Pupp, a confectioner, and thus the foundation for a development of the biggest Carlsbad restaurant and hotel Grandhotel Pupp was laid. The increase of the number of spa guests resulted in making lists of guests. Such lists were called "Kurlisty" (Spa lists). The first surviving lists date back to the late 17th century. Until 1794, they were written by hand, starting from 1795, they were printed and published by the local Franieck publishers.
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 generosity and ostentatiousness of rich visitors of Carlsbad enabled a quick extension of the network of ways for walks in the surroundings of the spa. Round 1800, the Scottish Lord J. O. Findlater was a significant patron and lover of the spa city. He supported the development of many promenades in the woods financially. The total length of the spa ways for walks in the surroundings of Carlsbad reached 130 km by the First World War.
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.
An important moment of the Carlsbad history was the year 1844 when a large-scale thermal water exportation began. This export of water out of Carlsbad was carried out thanks to the chemist Adolf Martin Pleischl and the spa doctor Eduard Hlawaczek. The distribution of mineral water and thermal products meant a great of source of revenues for the city.
After 1860, a small Czech community that was employed and settled in Carlsbad was formed in the so far German city of Carlsbad. The Slavonic Club founded in 1881 became the representative of the Czech minority in Carlsbad. The Slavonic Club was chaired by excellent Czech doctors Emanuel Engel, František Zatloukal, Vincenc Janatka and Milan Mixa during forty years.
The last quarter of the 19th century was a period of extensive building works and building of modern spa facilities. Thanks to this development, the city got its present architectural appearance influenced by the historicism and Art Nouveau considerably. In fact, this was the fourth Carlsbad whose beauty we can admire to the present day. The first, Gothic and Renaissance city perished due to the fire in 1604. The Baroque Carlsbad was damaged by a fire in 1759. Outdated Rococo, classicist, Empire and Biedermeier buildings making a provincial impression were pulled down gradually within the imposing reconstruction of the city in 1870 - 1900. Modern new buildings of a metropolitan character with all modern conveniences were built instead of the old buildings. The new buildings betrayed the significance of the city pompously, and the city became the most famous spa resort in Europe. The dominant spa facilities of the Military Spa Institution (1855), Vřídelní kolonáda (Thermal Spring Colonnade) (1879), Mlýnská kolonáda (Mill Colonnade) (1871 - 1881), Tržní kolonáda (Market Colonnade) ( 1883), Lázně III (Baths III) (1866) and the pretentious Císařské lázně (Imperial Baths) (1895), a new municipal theatre (1886), an Anglican church (1877), a synagogue (1877) and a Russian Orthodox church (1897) were built. The Viennese architecture represented by two architects Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer was crucial for the constructional character of the spa. These architects worked out projects for twenty important buildings in Carlsbad. The extensive building activities were crowned by the construction of the international Imperial Grandhotel before the First World War (1912).
The connection of the city to the European railway network in 1870, when the railway Carlsbad - Cheb was opened, was of a crucial significance for the further development of the city. One year later trains began going between Prague and Carlsbad. Round 1900, the regional railway network was complemented by local railways from Carlsbad to Mariánské lázně (1898), to Johanngeorgenstadt (1899) and Merklín (1902). The railway connection stimulated the economic life considerably and it meant an extraordinary increase of the number of visitors. The number of visitors began to climb very rapidly due to the successful cure of diabetes in Carlsbad after 1860 as well. The spa prosperity in the end of the 19th century was so great that this period is called "Golden Age of Carlsbad". The only dark date of this famous epoch was 24 November 1890 when the centre of Carlsbad was damaged by a violent flood very severely.
In relation to the modernisation of the spa facilities, the theory and praxis of the Carlsbad balneology underwent further modifications. Beneficial studies on this issue were written by local doctors Leopold Fleckles, Paul Cartellieri, Edgar Gans, Emerich Hertzka and V. N. Kronser. A great attention was paid to the application of Carlsbad water in case of treatment of diabetes, occupational diseases and obesity.
The genius loci of Carlsbad was affected by stays of leading representatives of the European culture, science and politics considerably prior to 1900. In the 19th century, the Thermal Spring was visited for instance by N. V. Gogol, F. Lizst, S. Freud, J. Barrande, H. Schliemann, T. Fontane, A. Dvořák, K. Marx, J. Brahms, R. Wagner, E. Grieg and many other celebrities.
Shortly before the First World War, Carlsbad reached the highest number of spa guests in its history. For instance 70 935 people were cured there in 1911. 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. 515 Carlsbad men died in battles in Europe. A worse supply caused poverty and starvation even for the privileged spa. Bells were taken down from churches for war purposes, dogs suitable for burden towing were seized and a card system for sale of food, soap and tobacco products was introduced. There were also social disorders there, for instance on 17 - 18 July 1918, a hungry demonstration of women took place close to the Thermal Spring. Although the Carlsbad spa life was revived quickly after the First World War, so many visitors as before the War did not come to the city. The War was a tragic milestone that changed the life in Europe. The decline of Austro-Hungary had an adverse impact on all spas on its former territory, i.e. Carlsbad as well. After foundation of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918, a difficult situation arrived in its border area. In their effort to defend their accustomed national, economic and political positions, the German inhabitants living there for centuries tried to create an autonomous province Deutsch-Böhmen with a full right of self-determination of the German ethnic group within the Czechoslovak Republic. This attempt was liquidated by the Czechoslovak army and police in Carlsbad. On 4 - 5 March 1919, big demonstrations of the German inhabitants requiring their right of self-determination took place in Carlsbad. There were conflicts between the demonstrators and Czech soldiers. This demonstration had a tragic result - six dead Germans. The fateful Carlsbad March of 1919 augured the following twenty years, the years distinguishing themselves by ethnic conflicts between the Czech inhabitants and the Germans. It is not possible to obscure that the disputes were artificially nourished by the nationalistic circles of both ethnic groups in the interest of political ambitions from time to time. In 1935, the German ethnic movement culminated in a foundation of the Sudeten-German party, whose leaders Konrad Henlein and Karl Hermann Frank became in Carlsbad.
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. The crisis resulted in bankruptcy of small businessmen and retailers. Only in 1936, more than one thousand executions were performed in Carlsbad. Wanting to survive, the city had to go into debt with the state very much. In spite of the grinding economic depression, several expensive constructions were implemented between the world wars. The construction of a dam on the Teplá River in Březová (1936) warding off the threat of enormous floods in the city for ever, was the most significant project. The spa capacity was extended by a construction of the modern facility Lázně VI (Baths IV) in 1927. The building of a health insurance company (1931) and the monastery church of the Redemptorists (1933) became decorations of the commercial quarter of Carlsbad. The Ohře River was spanned by a technically admirable bridge of reinforced concrete aiming towards the so called Upper Station. The Carlsbad balneologists Buxbaum, Ritter, Simon, Hendrych, Stransky and others worked out some partial issues of the spa treatment.
After the initial euphoria of the German inhabitants, the Second World War plunged the spa city into difficult economic problems. Due to the War, the spa operation was restricted quite a lot. As early as 1940, the first problems concerning food supplies occurred. Spa guests did not arrive and many spa facilities were switched into military hospitals. In October 1938 after a visit of Adolf Hitler, the leader of the German Reich, Carlsbad was occupied by the German army and attached to the so called "Third Reich" as a part of the so called "Sudeten province". Shortly before that the last Czech inhabitants, civil servants mostly, left the city. On 12 September 1944 and on 17 and 19 April 1945, Carlsbad was a target of several air attacks of allied bombers damaging the Upper and Lower Stations heavily. The suburb Rybáře and northern suburbs of the city suffered considerable losses. Several hundreds of people died during the air attacks.
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.
In 1945 - 1946, the German inhabitants of Carlsbad had to leave their homes in accordance with the Postdam Agreement. At the same time, a complicated process of a settlement of the border area by Czech inhabitants was in progress. The Czechs were founding their new homes step by step there. In relation to the forcible transfer of the German inhabitants and to the establishment of the communistic regime after 1948, plenty of villages and monuments were devastated and destroyed in the surroundings of Carlsbad, in particular in the mountainous area of Krušné hory, Doupovské hory and Slavkovský les in the 1950s and 1960s. Many buildings were also pulled down rashly in the spa city itself.
The spa treatment in Carlsbad was centralised and nationalised after 1948. The curative mineral sources and spa facilities were nationalised. An all-year-round comprehensive spa treatment started to be applied in Carlsbad. The current treatment in Carlsbad, based on centuries-old practical experience and topical scientific knowledge in the balneology, achieves excellent results. The modern theory and praxis of the spa treatment were enhanced significantly by studies of the Research Balneological Institute working in Carlsbad almost for 40 years. After 1945, research and studies of the balneologists J. Joachim, K. Bureš, J. Benda, A. Fried, J. Hanycz, J. Kolominský, A.Weiss, J. Miessler, V. Křížek, P. Šolc and others were important.
The building development of Carlsbad in the period of socialism building-up (1948 - 1989) found expression in particular in an enormous housing development. New housing estates made of bricks at first and of prefabricated sections later were built in Dvory, Tuhnice, Drahovice, Stará Role, Rybáře at Růžový vrch and at Čaňkovská Street. Unfortunately, the old building substance of Carlsbad was neglected for many decades, which caused a critical state of some buildings frequently. The situation improved partially in the new economic and property situation after 1989.
The modern architecture is represented by the Thermal sanatorium (l977) and Vřídelní kolonáda (Thermal Spring Colonnade) (1975). Other buildings built in the spa city during the past thirty years are for instance the complex of spa facilities in Kostelní Street (1978 - 1982), the Švýcarský dvůr sanatorium (Swiss Yard) (1971), the Sanssouci sanatorium (1970), the ice-hockey stadium (1983), hostels in Drahovice (1982), the commercial centre Perla (1986), the Bristol sanatorium as well as new buildings of Česká spořitelna (1994) and Česká pojišťovna (1194). Most of the Carlsbad industrial companies - Moser glass factory, china factories, Becherovka, Sedlecký kaolin were modernised in an extensive way, plenty of new companies were founded - for instance Vřídlo, a producer cooperative, the precast concrete works in Otovice, the heating plant in Bohatice, Elektrosvit, Stavba, a producer cooperative, etc. After 1990, a number of prominent historic and spa buildings were renovated, reconstructed or replaced by replicas in a very costly way (Tržní kolonáda - Market Colonnade, Sadová kolonáda - Colonnade of Orchard, Poštovní dvůr - Post Office Yard, Malé Versailles - Little Versailles, Grandhotel Pupp, Bristol Hotel, the main post-office, spa hotels Imperial, Švýcarský dvůr - Swiss Yard, Richmond, Felix Zawojski House, Mozart House, Petr House, Mozart's park, Vyhlídka Karla IV. - Belvedere of Charles IV, Aberg, Venus, Jean de Carro, Dvořák, Vyšehrad, Eliška, Villa Ritter, Sirius, Kolonáda Hotels, Kriváň-Slovan sanatorium, Zámecké lázně - Castle Baths, the castle in Doubí etc.).
The year 1989 became a beginning of a new promising era of a free development of the balneology, culture, travelling and business in the Thermal Spring Valley at the confluence of the Teplá and Ohře Rivers.
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.
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