THE CZECH LIST

Has the pandemic got you strung up? The quaint spa towns of Western Bohemia in the Czech Republic promise cheer and rejuvenation.

- SNIGDHA BHOWMICK

BELLE ÉPOQUE ARCHITECTURE, astronomical clocks, castles and châteaux, and frosty pines—a series of things come to mind when I think about the Czech Republic. But just west of its most rewarding hotspot and capital, Prague, is a sedate Imperial-era triad that shows the popular European destination in a different light. The Western Bohemian Spa Triangle, comprising the spa towns of Karlovy Vary, Mariánské Lázne, and Františkovy Lázne, is home to a great concentration of hot mineral springs and was once frequented by sovereigns and elites for its healing waters. Today, Western Bohemia is slowly reclaiming its place on the modern spa circuit with its plentiful offerings.

BACK IN TIME

Although the ritual of drinking and bathing in spring waters has been shared by many cultures—from Egyptians to the Chinese and the Red Indians—it was the Romans who popularised it with their bathhouses. For centuries, these Western Bohemian towns enjoyed popularity among the royals. But the downfall of the Roman Empire during the Dark Ages also dragged down the glorious culture of bathing in spring waters. Wars became frequent, and travelling for leisure became almost impossible—and the towns fell from grace.

In the later part of the 16th century Europe began to regain stability, and considerable investments led to the building of Czech spas in the UNESCO-listed Bohemian triangle in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Folks, first from nearby places and then from afar, once again began to seek out places with medicinal spring waters. The invention of railways in Europe, coupled with the Velvet Revolution in what was then Czechoslovakia, led to the surge of these spa towns.