"Time and time again they prove me Carlsbad into an intoxication of the senses, when I see not only what is, but also what could be and what is hidden behind the curtain. When I see everything that is hidden as if by magic.
It is perhaps the miracle of the healing springs, which even modern science has failed to capture and describe adequately in its fragility and mystery of elements.
It is perhaps a big world in a small one, teeming with the colours of many nations and races. All the charming, simple and miraculous people, the dazzling fads of fashion, the dreamers lost in their world, the women with blue blood and the miraculously rejuvenated old men, all casually and seemingly carelessly strolling together through the gardens of pleasure among the wooded mountains.
It is perhaps the proverbial German hospitality that shines through this kaleidoscopic image like a primary colour, smiling invitingly in the cosy houses, luring you into dreams in the charming still lifes, and making the old people look like little (yet big) children again as if by magic.
It is perhaps that special landscape which nature has created by her intuition and where providence has placed the miraculous and healing human abode. In a narrow valley full of cottages and villas, temples and towers that appear before the sweaty gaze after climbing steep slopes and mountains. A city that hides in the green and reappears again and again like a forest kingdom known only from fairy tales.
Is it one of those things, or something else entirely, that makes this Czech spa a jewel among other spa towns, lending this place an opalescent charm?
It is perhaps all of these together, and more importantly, something more: it is the honest and lively spirit of the citizens of Karlovy Vary who understand the duties of a proud world spa and never tire of surprising those who return in search of health and joy. Nothing can be said of the people and the towns except that they are becoming stronger, more hospitable, more efficient and more resourceful without losing their natural character. Carlsbad and its inhabitants fully deserve this praise."
Neues Wiener Tagblatt, 6 May 1895.
Article "Das neugeschmückte Karlsbad" about the opening of the Imperial Baths by Alfred Klaar.