|
|
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. |
