Travel Guide Mariánské Lázně

"There is no more beautiful spa town," said Thomas Edison upon discovering Mariánské Lázně in 1911... An hour's drive from Karlovy Vary, Mariánské Lázně - whose German name of Marienbad is equally well known - deserves its nickname of "Pearl of the Spas," thanks to the beautiful 90-hectare park surrounding it and its forty mineral springs(pramen), all of which are used for therapeutic purposes. The town has a sinuous and undulating character, making its charm more secret than Karlovy Vary, which is made of elegance and romanticism. This second famous spa, a little further south, enjoys an exceptional geographical location at the foot of the Slavkosky Mountains, at an altitude of 630 m. Founded in 1805, the resort developed around the nearby monastery of Teplá, which gave it its name ("Mary's Baths"). The romantic character of Mariánské Láznĕ inspired many of its curists, such as Chopin, Beethoven or Liszt. It was also here that Gogol began writing Dead Souls and Goethe wrote his Marienbad Elegy. At the age of 72, he met his last great love in Mariánské Lázně, the beautiful Ulrique von Levetzow, to whom he dedicated this poem. Other great names are known to have frequented the place: Friedrich Nietzsche, Georges Clemenceau, Edward VII, Franz Joseph, Mark Twain, Franz Kafka, Thomas Edison, Sigmund Freud, Gustav Mahler..