Karlovy Vary

Karlovy Vary is made up of 15 city parts and villages:

Cihelny forms an exclave of the municipal territory.

The city is named after its founder. The name Karlovy Vary means literally "Charles' Baths". The city was also colloquially called Warmbad ("hot bath").[6]

Karlovy Vary is located about 106 kilometres (66 mi) west of Prague. It lies at the confluence of the Ohře (which flows across the city) with the Teplá and Rotava rivers.

The northern part of the municipal territory with most of the built-up area lies in a relatively flat landscape of the Sokolov Basin. The southern part, including the valley of the Teplá River, lies in a hilly landscape of the Slavkov Forest and in the eponymous protected landscape area. The highest point is the hill Vítkův vrch, at 642 metres (2,106 ft) above sea level.

Karlovy Vary, 1650; engraving by Matthäus Merian

An ancient late Bronze Age fortified settlement was found in Drahovice. A Slavic settlement on the site of Karlovy Vary is documented by findings in Tašovice and Sedlec. People lived in close proximity to the site as far back as the 13th century and they must have been aware of the curative effects of thermal springs.[8]

From the end of the 12th century to the early 13th century, German settlers from nearby German-speaking regions came as settlers, craftsmen and miners to develop the region's economy. Eventually, Karlovy Vary/Karlsbad became a town with a German-speaking population.[9]

In 1325, Obora, a village in the today's city area, was mentioned. Karlovy Vary as a small spa settlement was founded most likely around 1349.[8] According to a legend, Charles IV organized an expedition into the forests surrounding modern-day Karlovy Vary during a stay in Loket. It is said that his party once discovered a hot spring by accident, and thanks to the water from the spring, Charles IV healed his injured leg.[10] On the site of a spring, he established a spa mentioned as in dem warmen Bade bey dem Elbogen in German, or Horké Lázně u Lokte (Hot Spas at the Loket).[11] The location was subsequently named "Karlovy Vary" after the emperor. Charles IV granted the town privileges on 14 August 1370. Earlier settlements can also be found on the outskirts of today's city.[8]

Modern times

Karlovy Vary in 1850

An important political event took place in the city in 1819, with the issuing of the Carlsbad Decrees following a conference there. Initiated by the Austrian Minister of State Klemens von Metternich, the decrees were intended to implement anti-liberal censorship within the German Confederation.

Due to publications produced by physicians such as David Becher and Josef von Löschner, the city developed into a spa resort in the 19th century and was visited by many members of European aristocracy as well as celebrities from many fields of endeavour. It became even more popular after railway lines were completed from Prague to Cheb in 1870.

The number of visitors rose from 134 families in the 1756 season to 26,000 guests annually at the end of the 19th century. By 1911, that figure had reached 71,000, but the outbreak of World War I in 1914 greatly disrupted the tourism on which the city depended.

At the end of World War I in 1918, the large German-speaking population of Bohemia was incorporated into the new state of Czechoslovakia in accordance with the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919). As a result, the German-speaking majority of Karlovy Vary protested. A demonstration on 4 March 1919 passed peacefully, but later that month, six demonstrators were killed by Czech troops after a demonstration became unruly.[12]

According to the 1930 census, the city was home to 23,901 inhabitants – 20,856 were of German ethnicity, 1,446 of Czechoslovak ethnicity (Czech or Slovak), 243 of Jewish ethnicity, 19 of Hungarian ethnicity and 12 of Polish ethnicity.[13]

In 1938, the majority German-speaking areas of Czechoslovakia, known as the Sudetenland, became part of Nazi Germany according to the terms of the Munich Agreement. After World War II, in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement, the vast majority of the people of the city were forcibly expelled because of their German ethnicity. In accordance with the Beneš decrees, their property was confiscated without compensation.[14]

Since the end of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia in 1989 and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the presence of Russian businesses in Karlovy Vary has steadily increased.

In 2017, non-Czech residents were around 7% of the population of the Karlovy Vary region. After Prague, this is the highest proportion in the Czech Republic. The largest group of foreigners were Vietnamese, followed by Germans, Ukrainians and Russians.[15]

The city's economy is focused on services and only small and medium-sized industrial enterprises are based in it. Karlovy Vary is known for the popular Czech liqueur Becherovka, which has been produced here since 1807, and for the production of the lead glass manufacturer Moser Glass founded in 1857, which is considered as the most luxurious Czech brand.[18] The Karlovarské oplatky (Carlsbad wafers) originated in the city in 1867. The city has also lent its name to "Carlsbad plums", candied stuffed prune plums.

Local buses (Dopravní podnik Karlovy Vary) and cable cars take passengers to most areas of the city. The Imperial funicular is the oldest tunnel funicular in Europe and the steepest in the Czech Republic, the Diana funicular was at the time of commissioning the longest funicular in Austria-Hungary.[19][20]

The city is accessible via the D6 motorway and inter-city public transport options include inter-city buses, České dráhy, and Deutsche Bahn via the Karlovy Vary–Johanngeorgenstadt railway. Karlovy Vary Airport is an international airport located 4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi) southeast from the city centre, at the village of Olšová Vrata.

Mill Colonnade

As the principal town on the West Bohemian Spa Triangle and the largest spa complex in Europe, Karlovy Vary has over 80 springs.[3] They are a part of the Eger Graben, a tectonically active region in western Bohemia. Although the infiltration area is several hundred square kilometres, each spring has the same hydrological origins, and therefore shares the same dissolved minerals and chemical formula. The hottest of the springs can approach 74 °C, while the coldest have temperatures under 40 degrees. All of the springs combined provide roughly 2,000 litres of water every minute.[3]

Church of St. Mary Magdalene

In the 19th century, Karlovy Vary became a popular tourist destination, especially known for international celebrities who visited for spa treatment. The city is also known for the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which is one of the oldest in the world and one of Europe's major film events.

The city has been used as the location for a number of film-shoots, including the 2006 films Last Holiday and Casino Royale, both of which used the city's Grandhotel Pupp in different guises. Moreover, the Palace Bristol Hotel in Karlovy Vary had been used as a model for The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Karlovy Vary is home to the top-tier ice hockey club HC Karlovy Vary, and football club FC Slavia Karlovy Vary, which plays in the third tier of the Czech football system.

Carlsbad, New Mexico, United States[24] (after which Carlsbad Caverns National Park is named), Carlsbad, California, USA[25] Carlsbad Springs, Ontario, Canada, and Carlsbad, Texas, USA, take their names from Karlovy Vary's English name, Carlsbad. All of these places were so named because they were the sites of mineral springs or natural sources of mineral water.

• 
  Teplá River embankment
• 
  The Grandhotel Pupp
• 
  Vřídelní street, above sets of Jeanna de Carro
• 
  Area over Vřídelní street
• 
  Dvořák Park
• 
  City Opera House
• 
  Park Colonnade
• 
  Canal in Karlovy Vary
• 
  A geyser

Panorama

A panorama of Karlovy Vary. Key sites, from left to right, are: the dark grey, socialist-era Thermal Spring Colonnade (also Hot Spring Colonnade or Sprudel) featuring a glass chimney. Directly above is the twin-steeple Church of St. Mary Magdalene. The large, stately building on the central hill is the Hotel Imperial. Below, to the right of the square, is the Opera House. The Grandhotel Pupp is the large white building, far right.

Wikisource has several original texts related to Karlovy Vary.

• "Carlsbad", Southern Germany and Austria (2nd ed.), Coblenz: Karl Baedeker, 1871, OCLC 4090237, OL 20619468M
• John Merrylees (1886). Carlsbad and its Environs. S. Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington.
• "Carlsbad", Guide through Germany, Austria-Hungary, Switzerland, Italy, France, Belgium, Holland, the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, &c (9th ed.), Berlin: J.H. Herz, 1908, OCLC 36795367, OL 6607948M
• "Carlsbad" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 346.
• "Carlsbad", Austria-Hungary (11th ed.), Leipzig: Karl Baedeker, 1911, OL 18759934M

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Karlovy Vary.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Karlovy Vary.

• Official website (in Czech)
• Official tourist portal
• Unofficial tourist portal
• Karlovy Vary regional television channel KTB
• Pictures & Streetmap from 1725 (?), A. F. Zuerner/Schenck (Amsterdam)
• Pictures & Streetmap from 1733, Homannische Erben (Nuernberg)
• Karlovy Vary City Card – guide, maps, discounts