The Secrets of Karlovy Vary

You’re standing at the source of everything. Beneath this glass-and-concrete colonnade, the Vřídlo geyser erupts from the earth at 72°C, blasting 2,000 litres of mineral water per minute to a height of 12 metres. It is the hottest and most powerful of Karlovy Vary’s roughly 70 springs, and it is the reason this city exists.

The legend goes like this: around 1350, Emperor Charles IV was hunting deer in the forests of western Bohemia when one of his hounds chased a stag off a cliff. The dog landed in a pool of scalding water and howled. Charles, intrigued, tested the waters himself and found them miraculous. He ordered a settlement built around the springs, and on August 14, 1370, he granted it the privileges of a free royal town.

The current colonnade dates from 1975, a functionalist replacement for earlier structures. Five drinking spouts line the hall at various temperatures. Locals fill porcelain sipping cups and stroll. The underground tour reveals the original spring channels carved into rock.

Walk a hundred metres from the geyser and you’ll find yourself before the most beautiful building in Karlovy Vary. The Church of St. Mary Magdalene was built between 1733 and 1736 by Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer, the Bohemian master who turned the Counter-Reformation into an architectural movement.

The layout is elliptical, which was radical for its time. Stand in the centre and the walls seem to breathe. The richly decorated Baroque altar dominates the nave, flanked by side chapels that nestle into niches like secrets. This church replaced a medieval Gothic predecessor from the second half of the 14th century.

Descend into the crypt and you’ll find skeletal remains from the original medieval cemetery, displayed in a Gothic vault that predates the church above by centuries.

You are now standing beneath the crown jewel of Karlovy Vary’s colonnades. The Mill Colonnade stretches 132 metres along the Teplá River, supported by 124 Corinthian columns, and it took a decade to build. Architect Josef Zítek—the same man who designed the National Theatre in Prague—delivered this neo-Renaissance masterpiece between 1871 and 1881.

Five mineral springs flow inside: the Mill Spring, the Rusalka Spring, the Prince Wenceslas Spring, the Libuše Spring, and the Rock Spring. Look up at the attic gable—twelve sandstone allegorical statues represent the months of the year.

In its heyday, this was the social runway of European aristocracy. Goethe strolled here. Beethoven paced here composing in his head. Tsar Peter the Great drank the waters here.

Climb the narrow path above Třžiště Street and you’ll reach a squat cylindrical tower perched on a rocky outcrop. This is the Castle Tower—the last standing remnant of the small Gothic castle that Emperor Charles IV ordered built around 1358.

The original castle was far grander. It housed a garrison, a chapel, and served as the emperor’s residence when he visited. But fires destroyed most of it. A devastating blaze in 1604 reduced the castle to rubble, and another in the 17th century finished the job. Only the tower endured.

In 1911, architect Friedrich Ohmann installed a lift into the rock face. From the tower’s viewing platform, you get the best aerial perspective of the entire spa quarter.

Viennese architects Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer—the prolific duo who built 48 theatres across Europe—designed this neo-Baroque gem between 1884 and 1886. The grand opening took place on May 15, 1886, with Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro.

The real surprise is inside. The painting decorations were entrusted to three young Viennese artists: brothers Gustav and Ernst Klimt, along with Franz Matsch. This was years before Gustav Klimt became the golden-robed provocateur of Viennese Secession.

The sculptural decorations are by Theodor Friedl, whose Muses guard the entrance alongside antique griffins. Every surface is ornamented, every cornice gilded.

In 1807, pharmacist Josef Vitus Becher began producing a herbal digestive using a recipe given to him by a visiting English physician named Dr. Frobrig. The concoction blended roughly 30 herbs and spices with Karlovy Vary’s mineral water, and it was originally sold as a stomach remedy.

Becher’s son Johann Nepomuk spent 40 years perfecting the recipe and moved production to this factory in 1867. By the turn of the century, Becherovka was famous across Europe. Locals gave it an honorary title: the 13th spring of Karlovy Vary.

The exact recipe remains a secret, known to only two people at any given time. Order a “Beton” at any Czech bar—Becherovka mixed with tonic water over ice. It’s the unofficial national cocktail.

After the monumental stone of the Mill Colonnade, the Market Colonnade feels almost fragile—a lacy confection of carved white wood in Swiss chalet style. Fellner and Helmer designed it between 1882 and 1883, originally as a temporary structure. It was supposed to last twenty years. It’s still here, over 140 years later.

Inside, three springs seep from the walls: the Charles IV Spring, the Lower Castle Spring, and the Market Spring. A bronze relief above the Charles IV Spring depicts the legendary moment when Charles discovered the hot springs.

The colonnade has been restored multiple times, most recently in the early 2000s, but the basic structure and ornamental carvings are Fellner and Helmer originals.

Walk uphill from the spa centre and you’ll spot something that looks transplanted from Moscow: five gilded onion domes crowning a neo-Byzantine church. This is the Orthodox Church of Saints Peter and Paul, and it tells the story of Karlovy Vary’s most devoted clientele—the Russians.

From the 18th century onward, Russian aristocrats flocked to Karlovy Vary in such numbers that the town became known as a “little Russia.” Tsar Peter the Great visited twice, in 1711 and 1712. By the late 19th century, the Russian community was large enough to demand its own church.

Architect Gustav Wiedermann designed the building, constructed between 1893 and 1898. The funding came largely from Russian donors.

Ludwig Moser was 24 years old in 1857 when he opened a glass workshop in Karlovy Vary. It took him 36 years—until 1893—to open his own production facility.

Moser glass distinguished itself by one radical decision: no lead. While most crystal producers added lead oxide for brilliance, Moser developed techniques to achieve the same clarity using potassium instead. Emperor Franz Joseph appointed Moser as his exclusive supplier.

The museum houses over 1,000 exhibits. But the real show is the glassworks tour, where you can watch master glassblowers shape molten crystal at 1,100°C using techniques unchanged since Ludwig Moser’s day.

The Grandhotel Pupp’s story begins in 1701 when the Saxon Hall was built for spa entertainments. In 1760, confectioner Johann Georg Pupp arrived, married into the family, and gradually acquired the entire complex.

The current neo-Baroque building was designed by Fellner and Helmer and built between 1896 and 1907. Under communism, it was nationalised and renamed Hotel Moskva. After 1989, the Pupp name was restored.

In 2006, the Grandhotel Pupp appeared in Casino Royale as the “Hotel Splendide.” It also hosts the opening ceremony of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival every July—one of Europe’s oldest film festivals, running since 1946.