When
the Bohemian king and the Roman emperor Charles IV founded Karlovy Vary, he didn't
surely know that he had just founded a spa town which would become world famous
one day.
During the following six centuries the town either flourished or
declined, it depended on if there had been peace in Europe or if some war or an
epidemic of plague had raged through the Continent. The appearance of Karlovy
Vary was also badly marked by floods and fires. But the town survived everything
and it put on new and usually more beautiful clothes after every disaster.
The fame of the town culminated in the second half of the 19th century and at
the beginning of the 20th century.It was at that time that the town gained the
greater part of its unique architecture which has harmonized with the surrounding
scenery up to this time.
Unfortunately, the World War I was the first line
in the chain of calamitous historical events which prevented the development of
the town for a long time.
Appart from its beauty and rich history the reputation
of the spa town is based on its unique curative source - on Karlovy Vary mineral
springs. The famous Sprudel was celebrated by poets in the past times and lots
of patients looked to it for the last hope to recover. Karlovy Vary mineral springs
helped to many of them and their praise spread the fame and good reputation of
the spa town to the whole world. In the present many patients from all over the
world highly appreciate the curative effects of Karlovy Vary spa treatment too.
The spa town is open for the whole world again and trying to regain its previous
beauty and prosperity. The appearance of the town, facilities of spa houses, restaurants
and shops improves every year. The offer of cultural events for foreign visitors
to the town has been extended as well.
People come to Karlovy Vary from all
continets (patients who are treated here come from 60 countries of the world and
spend three weeks in the town, short-term visitors come from 80 countries of the
world). Karlovy Vary ranks among the most international spa town in the world.
The number of visitors increases and is higher than the number of domestic visitors
at present. Visitors from the whole world who speak different languages return
to Karlovy Vary again and again. Some patients, especially those from the German
speaking countries, return to some sanatoriums even twice a year. There are also
patients who have visited Karlovy Vary more than fifty times.
The
offer of Karlovy Vary spa stays is also available at exhibitions and fairs in
both our republic and abroad. The town cooperates with a number of spa towns in
Germany, Austria and other countries and has got partner towns overseas - e.g.
the Kusatsu town in Japan or Carlsbad in California. The cooperation with the
European Union of Spas, which has recently started, helps to increase the reputation
of the spa system in other countries. Specialists from the towns which have no
spa tradition come to our town and ask for advice.
The effort to do something
for one's health and to live a good life without health problems has become popular
all over the world in the past years. People who want to get rid of stress and
tiredness or to strengthen their health and immunity through a preventive stay
come to Karlovy Vary as well - that is why the Karlovy Vary mineral springs are
said to have rejuvenation effects.
As the number of patients suffering from
chronic diseases is constantly increasing in the modern world, the number of allergies
increases as well. It's just the natural curative sources combined with various
methods of treatment that bring relief without side effects.
Karlovy Vary
with its long tradition, beauty and fame attracted prominent visitors not only
in the past.
The spa town offers enough opportunities to people who love tennis,
golf and other sports. The local horse-race is the second oldest in the Czech
Republic (it was founded in 1899). There are several swimming pools and outdoor
pools in Karlovy Vary and its environmens as well as a bowling room, a sports
stadium, an ice rink etc.
Thanks to its beautiful location in the valley of
the Tepla River, Karlovy Vary can boast of attractive surroundings. Both the visitors
to the town and its inhabitants like to make trips to the spa woods. They can
go to the Deer's Jump, the Diana Viewing Tower with a cable railway, the Goethe
Viewing Tower, the Three Crosses Hill, the dam in Brezova, the Svatosske skaly
Rocks, the town of Loket or the Andelska Hora village which are situated in the
close neighbourhood of the town. The Ore Mountains, the towns of Cheb and Zlutice
and, of course, Marianske Lazne and Frantiskovy Lazne, further two spa towns in
the West Bohemian region, are more distant places.
Karlovy Vary has got a
good bus and railway service. Buses come regularly from Prague, Brno and Vienna.
Planes up to 120 passengers can land on the international airport in Karlovy Vary.
The town itself is covered by a network of bus lines. It's also possible to go
by taxi.
Thousands of people have been treated in Karlovy Vary during the
time of its existence. Let only one person, namely Johann Wolfgang Goethe, speak
instead of them. In 1795 he came to Karlovy Vary for the first time and at the
end of the same year he wrote to a friend of his: "I will go to Karlovy Vary
in any case again. I am indebted to it for quite a different existence of mine".
We would like to invite you to test the curative effects of our mineral springs
and to feel the unique charm of the town with the Sprudel.
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Treatment
The fame of Karlovy Vary has spread into the whole world thanks to its
mineral springs. Thermal water in Karlovy Vary contains almost all minerals which
are important for us. The advantageous composition of these curative springs has
effects against inflammations. A lot of trace elements are very important during
chemical reactions in metabolism.
The Karlovy Vary water cures inflammations
and repairs bad functions of the digestion. It improves making energy in our bodies,
immunity and helps removing harmful substances. According to hundred-year-old
experience of spa doctors the most important thing is the drinking of thermal
springs on prescription.
The other curative procedures fill the treatment.
Besides drinking treatment the thermal springs are used for having a bath, the
clyster, the massages of gums, the thermal sprig gas is used too.
A lot of
spa guests have more problems and the treatment is continued by massages, the
hydrotherapy, the electrotherapy, practicing the oxygen treatment. The diet plan
is sure for all patients.
Neither curative experience from the past nor new
medical discoveries are able to cure chronic diseases. People have to live with
them. Excellent results of the treatment in Karlovy Vary improve many chronic
problems.
The quality of life depends on this, too and it influences its length
because nobody has died of the age yet, but all of diseases. The person is more
than an empty biological machine. He has a soul too. The hope of the treatment
of the chronic disease is in the complex treatment which includes the beauty of
the town, the nature and a historical atmosphere of lost generations. Improving
health is the main reason for people coming to Karlovy Vary after trying effects
of well-known thermal springs.
Twelve of about one hundred mineral springs
in Karlovy Vary are used in the drinking cure. Their basic compositions are similar
but they differ in temperature and the amount of carbon dioxide, and that is why
their effects are different as well. The colder springs usually have a slightly
purgative effect while the warmer ones make the production of bile and stomach
juices slower.
Procedures
