The Czech Republic is much more than Prague. The Czech capital is one of the most visited cities in Europe because of its architecture, local customs and those new neighbourhoods, such as Vinohrady, which fill its cultural panorama with modernity, but there is one unknown czechia that is waiting to be discovered.
And, although we do not need excuses, since there is plenty of historical and natural assets, it is West Bohemia our new object of desire since its spa triangle has just been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with other large European spa cities. Three picturesque and secluded cities –Karlovy Vary, Mariánské Lázne and Františkovy Lázne– with as many nuances as flavors and temperatures have their medicinal mineral water.
Karlovy Vary.
KARLOVY VARY
The usual thing is to go to Karlovy Vary (whose name comes from Charles IV, its founder in the 14th century) to carry out a thermal getaway (treatments, incidentally covered, by the Czech public health system). But those who do not have problems with the digestive or locomotor system - or do not believe in the healing power of the 13 medicinal sources scattered throughout its urban area– they can always dedicate themselves to a more hedonistic and less therapeutic tourism.
That is, instead of use a kalíšek to go in procession from colonnade to colonnade (from the Mill, the Market, the Park…) sipping the water emanating from the subsoil, we recommend replacing this porcelain jug –with a pipe-shaped spout– for a good crystal glass (we are in Bohemia for a reason) loaded with an excellent South Moravian wine, region in which almost all of the country's wines are produced. In the Tusculum restaurant Chef Pavel Provázek's tasting menu is accompanied by a complete wine pairing.
Czech creative cuisine dish.
For its part, Le Marche often ranks high among the best restaurants in the Czech Republic, and is not for less. It is no longer just that chef Jan Krajč uses fresh local ingredients for his daily menu, but that he manages to give them a form (and a flavor) so gourmet that a simple vegetable cream will seem marvelous and a starter of wild boar terrine with blueberries, a main dish such as sturgeon accompanied with beluga lentils or the octopus served with tomato and olives.
More classic and affordable is the menu of the Becherplatz Pivovar Karel IV restaurant, with the appearance of a traditional brewery in the lower part of the Becherovka Museum, in which the history and manufacture of the most famous czech herbal liqueur (whose formula only two people in the world know). Ask for one pilsner beer, unfiltered or pasteurized, made with Moravian malts and Czech hops, and accompanied by a tasty kulajda –the typical soup based on sour milk, mashed potatoes and mushrooms flavored with dill– and a beef stew in a cream sauce with blueberries and dumplings (a very fluffy type of Czech baked bread).
Octopus with tomato and olives.
A day in the city would not be complete without a walk along the Teplá River that runs through it, strewn with colorful and picturesque houses with their own names (of the Maltese Cross, of Madrid, of the Elephant, etc.) and commemorative plaques on the facades that recall the passage of the thinkers, composers and artists who stayed there –remember that Karlovy Vary was one of the most famous spas in Central Europe–. An architectural hubbub which means that in the same photo you can capture a functionalist building next to a neo-baroque and a historicist one.
You can also complete the escape with a visit to Moser-Museum (which includes access to the workshops of glass blowers and cutters) or to the nearby city of Loket and its Romanesque-Gothic castle (Watch out for its theatrical and intriguing medieval torture room).
glass factory
We suggest you go to sleep –among moldings, curtains and chandeliers– with History, in capital letters, in the Grandhotel Pupp, whose origin dates back to 1701, so it has witnessed the great city fire of 1759, the flood of 1821, the rise and fall of Nazism, the Czechoslovak nationalization, the birth in the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the 40s and even the Velvet Revolution.
It was at the end of the last century when recovered its architectural and social splendor, becoming the favorite accommodation for actors, directors and filmmakers as they pass through the festival, until the hotel Thermal stole part of the limelight with his seventies brutalism, both hated and revered. In fact, the Pupp hosted the filming of the movie Casino Royale, with Daniel Craig and Eva Green, and there are those who they assure that it served as inspiration to Wes Anderson for the The Grand Budapest Hotel; they say the same in the neighbor Bristol Palace, whose rosy imperialist facade you will see reflected in the hotel of the fictitious Lutz.
Mariánské Lázne
Another hotel in which it is well worth spending a night (or the whole day without leaving it) on our itinerary through the Czech spa triangle is the Ensana Nové Lázne, always described as prestigious (it is a member of the exclusive Royal Spas of Europe), magnificent (the columns of its original Roman baths date from 1896) and historic, as two of its treatment rooms – the Royal Cabin and the Imperial Room – have remained intact since they were occupied by King Edward VII.
They have been offering in their spa for more than a century curative treatments based on local natural resources to those who come with disorders of the musculoskeletal system, kidney diseases or digestive problems, however, a prescription is not needed for swim in its two mineral water pools (from the hotel's exclusive spring). The hearts of both your cardiovascular system and your Instagram will be strengthened as soon as you dive and upload a photo to the wall
Roman baths of the Ensana Nové Lázne hotel.
In Mariánské Lázne there are also theaters, casinos, a fountain that at certain times 'emanates' music and springs, many, almost fifty, of water rich in carbon dioxide. But there is a structure -located next to the spring of Mary, from which the toponym of the city derives – which, due to its unique architecture, attracts attention: Spa Colonnade.
Is cast iron colonnade built at the end of the 19th century in neo-baroque style –which used to bear the name of the Russian writer (and regular at the spa) Maksim Gorky– is a perfect place to stroll and let your imagination run wild… at least as far as outer space, because if you look closely at its ceiling frescoes, instead of the typical cherubs, you will find cosmonauts.
Lázeňské Oplatky Kolonáda shop.
You will be amazed at so much originality, so it is best that you go to the nearby Lázeňské Oplatky Kolonáda store to buy some traditional Czech spa wafers. Stuffed with vanilla, chocolate, hazelnuts... its texture is so addictive that you won't be able to settle for crunching just one.
From Mariánské Lázně three excursions are recommended: Bečov nad Teplou, to visit his palace, which houses the Reliquary of Saint Maurus (one of the most valuable treasures in the country, only comparable to the Czech crown jewels), to the Kynzvart Palace –a classicist cabinet of curiosities that exhibits everything from an Egyptian mummy to the prayer book of Marie Antoinette– and to the Kladská educational trail.
The latter, a r walked through the forest which leads to a viewpoint with views of the peat bogs, wetlands laden with organic material (peat) which is often used for fertility treatments. Which brings us to our last stop: Frantiskovy Lázně.
Kynžvart Palace.
FRANTISKOVY LAZNĚ
The first spa in the world to use the healing properties of peat was founded in this small and idyllic Czech town. Which, as a joke, invites us to change the order of the proverb and affirm that these powders come from those muds, since Frantiskovy Lázně is visited by women who wish to promote pregnancy or improve gynecological ailments.
Although it has not been proven that it works to ask her to be a mother – as legend has it – to the statue of the naked boy nicknamed František, It appears that peat mud stimulates dopamine receptors in the body, which acts as a vasodilator.
Frantisek.
You can put the icing on the cake – but let it be ‘de musgo’, a local specialty that is actually made from spinach– to this trip through the Czech spa triangle touring the parks and the main avenue of Frantiskovy Lázně or visiting the nearby SOOS nature reserve, a unique landscape covered with lakes, mineral waters and swampy vegetation.