Mariánské Lázně Excursion.

Mariánské Lázně 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. This excursion definitely shows you nice places of interest: the beautiful and youngest European spa town situated in a charming valley. You can admire many spa-houses, unique colonnades and an impressive "Singing Fountain".

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Marianske Lazne History

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 German 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 (Kreuzquelle, 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 Karl Kaspar 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.

Marianske Lazne

The name Marienbad (now: Mariánské lázně) first appeared 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. The German population was expelled after WWII. 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 Franzensbad (now: Františkovy Lázně).

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