The story of this place
Legend credits Charles IV with founding the spa around 1370 after his hunting dogs stumbled on a scalding hot spring; the town still bears his name, 'Charles' Baths'. Twelve principal hot springs, the hottest gushing 72°C from the Vřídlo geyser, feed elegant colonnades where visitors sip mineral water from spouted porcelain cups. Its golden age drew a dazzling roll of guests — Peter the Great, Goethe, Beethoven, Chopin, Bach's son, Karl Marx, who worked on Das Kapital here, and Beethoven, who premiered a work at its theatre. The sweet wafer Karlovarské oplatky and the herbal liqueur Becherovka, the 'thirteenth spring', were born here. Its pastel façades now host a famous international film festival.