Essence of Place - Imperial Spa

We would like to thank all those who participated in the revitalization of the Imperial Spas in Karlovy Vary and the grand re-opening of the Imperial Spas.

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 [...]

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 [...]

Hundreds of archive boxes and documents, thousands of maps, magazines and photographs and many unique regional monuments have been taken into the care of the Imperial Spas. At the request of the family of the late Dr. Burachovich, his life's historical work found a new home here. Last week, Mrs. Alena Burachovic signed the donation contract and the Imperial Spas are now beginning to work on the inventory and [...]

At the time, the Imperial Spas were among the most modern facilities of their kind in the world. For the first time, a unique system of transporting prepared tubs of peat by means of lifts and internal pavilions to the baths themselves was used. It was even reported in the period press that the baths "miraculously emerge from the floor and after the bath are again just as miraculously [...]

Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and Karel Čapek stayed together in Karlovy Vary 90 years ago. They worked on the famous "Talks with TGM". At that time, the town was struggling with the effects of the economic crisis and the tense international situation, which led to an outflow of spa guests.