December 24, 2013/ altair / European SPA Resorts, European Vacations

Spas grew in reputation in the nineteenth century on into the late middle-twentieth century for their purported healing or healthful benefits to those wealthy enough to partake of their waters. This was called a Mineral cure and gave let to the phrase ‘taking a cure’, still used as a euphemism, normally though today for one trying to kick a drug dependency.

In many cases, they were located in mountainous locales that gave an additional excuse to leave the drudgery of a hot house in warm weather during summer’s onset and were seasonally populated by the well-to-do. They eventually became early vacation spots with the counter-Victorian work ethic ‘rationale’ of health as an excuse to have fun and mix with one’s peers in recreation.

Mariánské Lázn? (Marienbad) is a spa town in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. The town, surrounded by green mountains, is a mosaic of parks and noble houses. Most of its buildings come from the town’s Golden Era in the second half of the 19th century, when many celebrities and top European rulers came to enjoy the curative carbon dioxide springs.

History

Although the town itself is only about two hundred years old, the locality has been inhabited much longer. The first written record dates back to 1273, when there was a village of Úšovice. The springs first appear in a document dating from 1341 where they are called “the Auschowitzer springs” belonging to the Tepl Abbey. It was only through the efforts of Dr Josef Nehr, the abbey’s physician, who from 1779 until his death in 1820 worked hard to demonstrate the curative properties of the springs, that the waters began to be used for medicinal purposes. The place obtained its current name of Marienbad in 1808; became a watering-place in 1818, and received its charter as a town in 1868.

By the early 20th century, approximately 1,000,000 bottles of mineral water were exported annually from Marienbad. The water from the Cross Spring (Kreuzquelle, K?ížový pramen) was evaporated and the final product was sold as a laxative under the name of sal teplensis. The modern spa town was founded by the Tepl abbots, namely Karl Kaspar Reitenberger, who also bought some of the surrounding forests to protect them. Under the guidance of gardener Václav Skalník, architect Ji?í Fischer, and builder Anton Turner the inhospitable marshland valley was changed into a park-like countryside with colonnades, neoclassical buildings and pavilions around the springs.

The name Marienbad first appeared in 1786; since 1865 it has been a town. Then a second period of growth, the town’s Golden Era, came. Between 1870 and 1914 many new hotels, colonnades and other buildings, designed by Friedrich Zickler, Josef Schaffer, and Arnold Heymann, were constructed or rebuilt from older houses. In 1872 the town got a railway connection with the town of Eger (Cheb) and thus with the whole Austro-Hungarian Empire and the rest of Europe.

The town soon became one of the top European spas, popular with notable figures and rulers who often returned there. Among them were such names as Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Frédéric Chopin, Thomas Edison, Richard Wagner or Prince Friedrich of Saxony, British King Edward VII, the Russian Czar Nicholas II, and Emperor Franz Joseph I and many others. At those times, about 20,000 visitors came every year.

Marienbad remained a popular destination between World War I and World War II. After WWII, the ethnic German population of the town was forcibly expelled according to the Potsdam agreement, thereby emptying the town of the majority of its population. After the communist coup-d’état in 1948; it got sealed off from most of its foreign visitors. After the return of democracy in 1989 much effort was put into restoring the town into its original character. Today it is not only a spa town but also a popular holiday resort thanks to its location among the green mountains of the Slavkovský les and the ?eský les, sport facilities (the town’s first golf course was opened in 1905 by the British King Edward VII) and the proximity to other famous spa towns, such as Carlsbad (Karlovy Vary) or Franzensbad (Františkovy Lázn?).

Mineral springs and colonnades

The top attraction of the town is its 100 mineral springs (53 of them are tapped) with high carbon dioxide content and often also higher iron content, both in the town itself and its surroundings. Most of them are well-kept and often pavilions and/or colonnades are built around them. The most notable ones are:

• K?ížový pramen (Cross Spring) – is the most famous spring of Mariánské lázn?. A monumental pavilion with a cupola bearing a patriarchal cross and 72 Ionic columns was built over the spring in 1818-1826. Today’s concrete building is a copy from 1911–1912, originally it was a light wooden and brick construction. The water from the spring is high-mineralized with a strong laxative effect, it has been used for both curative drinks and baths.
• Rudolf?v pramen (Rudolph’s Spring) – with a wooden pavilion built over the spring, some water is tapped and piped to the nearby colonnade and some is bottled. Its water is low-mineralized with high calcium content and has been used to cure urinary problems.

• Karolinin pramen (Caroline’s Spring) – named after the wife of the Emperor Francis I, Caroline Augusta. The nearby colonnade was built in 1869, the pavilion is a reconstruction from 1989. The water is low-mineralized, with higher magnesium content.
• Ferdinand?v pramen (Ferdinand’s Spring) – the water from the spring, similar in composition to K?ížový pramen, is bottled under the Excelsior label.
• Ambrožovy prameny (Ambrose’s Springs)
• Lesní pramen (Forest Spring)
• Zpívající fontána (Singing Fountain)

Not many people in North America know (never mind, appreciate) about amazing health benefits of balneological resorts, which are very often called “spa resorts”. But “American” meaning of these words is a little bit different and usually associated with beauty salons. Balneotherapy refers to the medicinal use of water treatment, not to recreational use. Actually, the word “spa” is a Latin abbreviation for: S = salud, P = per, A = aqua, or “Health through Water.”

The term “balneotherapy” is generally applied to health treatment, including:

• drinking of mineral waters
• mineral water hot and natural vapor baths
• hydro massage through moving mineral water
• hot mud applications
• swimming in warm mineral water pools and other

Many mineral waters are rich in particular minerals (silica, sulfur, selenium, radium) which can be absorbed through the skin.

Drinking cure is an essential balneotherapeutic method.

• It firstly improves the digestion and cure different digestive disorders, diseases of kidneys, gall-bladder, pancreatic gland and intestines.
• Drinking mineral water activates metabolism which is essential for those suffering from diabetes, gout, arthritis and high pressure.
• It enhances immunity system.
• A weight loss and body purifying are among the most important health benefits of drinking cure.

Mineral water is taken repeatedly in controlled doses straight from the spring. A doctor specifies the amount and frequency as well as the spring type. Three weeks is the optimal duration of the drinking cure, and the recommended repeating is in a six-month interval.

The belief in the curative power of mineral waters goes back to prehistoric times, but balneotherapy is especially widespread in Europe and Japan.

You can check in the Internet what people say about mineral water cure and how dramatically that treatment improved their health.

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Tags Mariánské Lázne – Enjoy the Gift of Healing Waters