Mariánské Lázně

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This article is about the Czech town. For the film by Alain Resnais, see Last Year at Marienbad.

Coordinates: 49°58′36.5″N, 12°42′19″E

Mariánské lázně

Town

The main cast-iron colonnade with the Singing Fountain

Coat-of-arms

Country

Area

51.81 km² (20 mi²)

Center

- coordinates

49°58′36.5″N, 12°42′19″E

- elevation

578 m (1,896 ft)

Population

14,083 (2005)

First documented

1273

Postal code

38801

Website : www.marianskelazne.cz

Mariánské Lázně (IPA: [ˈmarɪja:nskɛ: ˈla:zɲɛ]; German: Marienbad) is a spa town in the Carlsbad Region of the Czech Republic. The town, surrounded by green mountains, is an exquisite 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.

1 History
2 Geography
3 Population
4 Economy
5 Points of interest
- 5.1 Mineral springs and colonnades
- 5.2 Churches
6 People
7 External links
8 Images

[edit] History

Typical building in the town centre.

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. For most of its history it belonged to the nearby Teplá Monastery. The springs had been known since the beginning of the valley's settlement, yet they were first examined (for salt content) in 1528 on the order of the Austrian Emperor and Czech King Ferdinand I. They only found sodium sulfate which didn't start to be used but at the beginning at the turn of the 18th century, after it had been examined by Jan Josef Nehr, the abbey's doctor of the Teplá Monastery. The water from the Cross Spring (Křížový 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 Teplá Monastery abbots, namely Karel Kašpar Reitenberger, who also bought some of the surrounding forests to protect them. Under the guidance of gardener Václav Skalník, architect Jiří Fischer and builder Anton Turner the inhospitable marshland valley was changed into a park-like countryside with colonnades, neoclassical buildings and pavilons around the springs.

The name Mariánské lázně first appears 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 Cheb (then town by its German name Eger) and thus with the whole Austrian-Hungarian Empire and the rest of Europe.

The town soon became one of the top European spas and it was very popular with celebrities 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, English king Edward VII, the Russian Czar Nicholas II, and Emperor Franz Joseph II and many others. At those times, about 20,000 visitors came every year.

It remained a popular destination between WWI and WWII, but after the communist coup-d'état in 1948 it got sealed from most of its foreign visitors. After the return of democracy in 1989 a lot of effort was put into restoring the town into its original character. Nowadays it's 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 Český 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 Františkovy Lázně.

[edit] Geography

[edit] Population

Until their expulsion in 1945 the majority of the population of the city spoke German (see Sudetenland). Nowadays, however, most of the inhabitants are Czechs.

[edit] Economy

[edit] Points of interest

[edit] Mineral springs and colonnades

The Singing Fountain

The top attraction of the town are its about 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 orderly kept and often pavilions and/or colonnades are built around them. The most notable ones are:

Křížový pramen (Cross Spring) - is the most famous spring of Mariánské lázně. A monumental pavilion with a copula 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.

Rudolfův 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 urinal problems.

Karolinin pramen (Caroline's Spring) - named after the wife of the Emperor Franz 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.

Ferdinandův pramen (Ferdinand's Spring) - the water from the spring, similar in composition to Křížový pramen, is bottled under the Excelsior label.