From the history of the spa industry

Let not thirst be thy sorrow, for our cellars are full of barrels! This is how one can loosely translate the German rhyme from the wine list of the hotel "At Archduke Charles", which used to stand in today's Moravská Street just a short walk from Vřídlo. We found the wine menu of the local "Old German cellar" in the collection of Stanislav Burachovich and we want to share this charming archival relic. [...]

The landmark year of 1989 was much more blurred in Karlovy Vary than elsewhere in the country. Long before the revolution, communism shook hands with capitalism here. One such case was the casino in Císařské lázně, which opened in June 1988. The Communist Party-run country in the late 1980s was in desperate need of Western marks, shillings and dollars. Lubomír Štrougal's cabinet therefore made contacts [...]

In the collection of Stanislav Burachovič we often come across charming prints. One of them is a view of the Karlovy Vary bourgeois brewery, which stood on the site of today's Imperial Spa since 1732. Even though the picture is idyllic and the summer beer garden is a real lure to sit in, the brewery was a thorn in the side of many Karlovy Vary townspeople. The tall smoking chimney right in the spa centre suggests why. Originally [...]

Since September 2023 we have been looking after the extensive archive collection of Stanislav Burachovich, which was entrusted to us free of charge by his family. We have started organizing, inventorying and preparing it for access to researchers and the public. It will take some time, but already now we want to share the selected treasures and inspirations. The first topic will be prosaic. It will be about money. The Imperial Spas attracted [...]