The Imperial Spa built for Emperor Franz Josef has served monarchs, politicians and film stars
Before serving as a stylish backdrop to James Bond's Casino Royale, this famous Czech spa catered to the world's elite. In the course of the 20th century the Imperial Baths served monarchs, politicians and more recently film stars. The spa house has now been restored to its former glory.
The history of Karlovy Vary is linked to balneology. The town’s mineral springs and peat baths attracted people from far and wide and in the late 19th century, at the initiative of local physicians, the town council financed the construction of a spa house that would cater to an elite clientele from Europe and beyond.
The Imperial Baths complex opened in 1895 and, in its day and age, it was the largest, most luxuriously equipped spa house on the Continent. Designed by the famous architectural firm Fellner and Helmer, it was not only a haven of luxury and privacy for the rich and famous – it offered mineral waters and peat baths that professed to have great healing powers.
The spa made Karlovy Vary an important social centre of the time attracting emperors, kings, members of the nobility, as well as key figures of learning and the arts. In order to satisfy their demands, the spa facilities had to offer the latest technology and fashion trends of the time and an army of employees. Not just the buildings and their interiors, but the surrounding arbors and colonnades were designed with attention to the smallest detail.
Up to two hundred employees took care of clients’ needs and private staff were brought in by the guests themselves. The most luxurious room in the spa’s bowels was the Imperial Bathroom.
The bathroom suite is actually a set of three interconnected rooms - the Imperial Bathroom Salon, the Changing Room and the Bathroom proper. Thanks to an extensive renovation finished last year, we can now admire these rooms in their original glory.
The head of the visitors’ centre at the spa house, historian Miloš Bělohlávek walks us through the suite.
“The Imperial Bathroom is the most luxurious space in the entire Imperial Spa. It is a three part suite which served the most distinguished visitors. This is the only part of the famous spa which is furnished exactly as it was in 1895, with authentic materials. We are now in the first of the three rooms of the Imperial Bathroom suite – which was known as the “Salon”. It is the biggest of the three rooms. Its walls are covered with silk wallpaper, there are mahogany wood furnishings, armchairs upholstered with brocade and authentic silver mirrors from the end of the 19th century. The furniture was made by the famous Venetian furniture producer Zigmund Zare. Everything here was meant to spell luxury and opulence –the best materials and artefacts that money could buy at the end of the 19th century.”
The spa’s inauguration took place on May 5, 1895 with great pomp and fanfare and a lot of attention from the press. The spa had more than a hundred baths and a unique system of processing and transporting peat for the preparation of the treatments. In one day, the baths served nearly two thousand people. Miloš Bělohlávek explains how the VIP bathroom suite got its name:
Theses premises were only named the “Imperial Bathroom” after the Second World War. Until 1945 it was called the Prince’s or Duke’s Bathroom. And although it was generally reserved for the most distinguished guests anyone who had enough money to book this luxurious suite could do so. Although the name “Imperial Bathroom” was chosen in honour of Emperor Franz Josef, he only saw it once on an inspection tour and never actually used it. However many other influential guests did – among them , Persian Shah Muzaffar Eddin, the founder of Turkey Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev or astronaut Yuri Gagarin. In other words people who helped mold 19th and 20th century history.
After the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the establishment of independent Czechoslovakia, it was forbidden by law to commemorate the Habsburg monarchs and the monarchy. Therefore, at this time the Imperial Spa became known simply as Spa I.
Until the end of the Second World War, the spa building operated only during the spa season - from May to September. From the 1940s to the 1950s a major reconstruction of the building was carried out, which enabled year-round operation. Unfortunately, the first major losses of original equipment and technology occurred during this renovation.
Despite this, after a costly renovation concluded last year the appearance of the bathroom proper is imposing.
“We are now entering the bathroom proper. The size of the bathroom is not bigger than that of the other bathrooms in the compound. They were all the same size and had the same basic furnishings, but the Imperial Bathroom was special due to the colour scheme, the materials used and attention paid to detail. For instance the tiles on the walls here have a special motif and there are tiles all the way to the ceiling. The ceiling itself has a cross vault which creates the impression that you are in a chapel. As you can see, there are two bathtubs. One was for the peat bath. The other was a bath with clean mineral water which is like a small pool.“
Because of increasing maintenance costs the communists decided to close the spa as such in the late 1980s and the historic building was used as a casino and occasionally hosted various social and cultural events. With little or no maintenance it gradually fell into disrepair.
After the fall of communism, the Imperial Spa compound was declared a national cultural monument – a decision that placed it on a par with Prague Castle, Kynžvart Castle, or the chateau in Bečov.
The owner of the building, the Karlovy Vary Region, ordered a complete reconstruction of the spa during which the compound regained much of its former glory. It reopened to the public in 2023.
Since then tens of thousands of visitors have toured the premises. Although visitors have access to the Imperial Bathroom in the bowels of the spa, the idea of languishing in the tub used by so many VIP guests, is no longer feasible. Miloš Bělohlávek explains why.
“The bath is no longer used. The water pipes and drains have been closed off. The last celebrity who bathed here was Jackie Chan who shot some scenes for the movie Shaghai Knights at the spa.”
You can visit the Imperial Spa daily from 10 am to 6 pm. In addition to guided tours, the centre offers a range of interesting events. In May it will offer a unique exhibition on the history of balneology in the Czech lands.
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