Karlovy Vary is the largest and best known Czech spa. It is famous for hot springs used for bathing and drinking. For centuries it has remained a resort to which the elites of the Czech and then Habsburg states came.
According to reports, the first hot springs were discovered on the Tepla River in the mid-fourteenth century, during the reign of Charles IV of Luxembourg. The town was then called Vary, or ukrop, and from the name of the king who gave it city rights, she was nicknamed Karlove. Currently, it belongs to the so-called Czech spa triangle along with Marianske and Františkovy Lázně. There are 13 sources here with temperatures from 41 to 73 degrees Celsius, which are used in the treatment of digestive system diseases, diabetes mellitus, locomotor system diseases and during the recovery of people with cancer. There are three spa houses and dozens of sanatorium and spa facilities offering a very wide range of therapeutic procedures.
Karlovy Vary flourished in the 19th and early 20th centuries. A unique spa architecture complex was established at that time, the axis of which is the Tepla River. Currently, thoroughly restored neoclassical, eclectic and Art Nouveau tenement houses, palaces and sanatoriums are receiving visitors again. The heart of the spa is the Spa Park with colonnades covering the mouths of the water and historic bathhouses.
Karlovy Vary is also famous for the production of decorated glass. The Moser crystal glass factory has been operating here since 1857, next to which there is a glass museum. To this day, its products are valued all over the world and decorate the interiors of embassies and seats of crowned heads. One of the most famous Czech liquors, Becherovka, is also produced in Karlovy Vary.
