Mariánské Lázně

Mariánské Lázně, German Marienbad, spa town, western Czech Republic. It is situated on the edge of the wooded hills southwest of Karlovy Vary. Its more than 40 mineral springs were long the property of the Premonstratensian Abbey (12th century) at Teplá, a few miles east of the town. When Josef Nehr, the abbey’s doctor, demonstrated the therapeutic properties (efficacious for rheumatism and digestive disorders) of the peat and springs in the early 19th century, the monks subsidized the spa, which adopted its German name (Marienbad) in 1808. It received its town charter in 1868.

Situated in a forested and enclosed basin at an elevation of 2,000 feet (600 m), Mariánské Lázně is one of Europe’s most scenic spas. Well-known patrons have included the English king Edward VII, the composers Frédéric Chopin and Richard Wagner, and the writers Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Franz Kafka, and Henrik Ibsen. During the period of communist rule in Czechoslovakia (1948–89), many of the town’s once-luxurious hotels and cure houses became dilapidated. Pop. (2004 est.) 14,277.