Jméno autora: Země světa

Karlovy Vary has undoubtedly still other positive attributes – Goethe called it for instance “the chessboard of Europe” – and since its foundation it has been our oldest and greatest spa resort. But the spa character of this town can be best seen in its colonnades. Although they were intended to enable walking and drinking of mineral water directly at springs, at the same time, they have become a part, or even the scene, of the spa’s social life…

The Slavkovský les Forest conceals a life-giving force that somehow reminds of well-protected secrets of legendary heroes whose life was also dependent on energy hidden sometimes in the heart of mountains and other times in a magic ring. The protected mountain complex of the Slavkovský les Forest situated within the spa triangle is exactly such precious source of energy. If it were not here, the towns on its perimeter would only vegetate…

Riches of the Earth concentrated in the westernmost part of Bohemia are so abundant that this region always used to be a favourite destination of prospectors, Christian pilgrims, spa visitors and nature lovers…

For one thousand years, China succeeded to keep its secret of porcelain fabrication. When Johann F. Böttger discovered porcelain for the second time in 1709 in Meissen, Saxony did not manage to keep his “arcanum” for more than ten years. Tradition has it that the first one to find it out was a military agent of the Austrian court who then established in Vienna his own porcelain factory, which he later had to sell to the state because of his debts…

The romantic and at the same time mysterious landscape around Cheb was always attractive for settlers. This attractiveness is obviously seen also in the local architecture. Local Baroque buildings, both religious and profane, were designed by so eminent personalities as K. I. Dientzenhofer, A. Leuthner or G. B. Alliprandi…

In 1965, when a new, already the thirteenth healing spring was found after many years in Karlovy Vary, it should, according to the local tradition, obtain the serial number of its finding. But as the number thirteen was already occupied, because the Becherovka liqueur was for years called the thirteenth spring, the new spring was named the Second Václav´s Spring…

Already in the remote past, Cheb was not only an entrance gate to Bohemia, but also an important centre of the westmost part of the country. Its Czech name is derived from the bend of the Ohře River, its German name Eger comes from the ancient Celtic name of the river – Agara. The historic centre of the town, significantly devastated in the 1950´s, was reconstructed at the beginning of the 1960´s. In 1981, Cheb was proclaimed urban conservation area…

The Teplá Monastery is one of the nearly thirty large monasteries founded in Bohemia during the 12th century, but it is probably the only one existing thanks to a lucky chance. If we believe an old story, we must even admit that it owes its foundation to a simple human failure, to the fear of a man of an unknown natural element. This man was the Bohemian lord Hroznata who had to take part in the third crusade but still before leaving the Italian shore he was struck by panic when seeing the rough sea and he did not even enter the ship…

In a hot summer day, the bog mud is dried and fissured into regular polygonal fields. The margins of their deep fissures are decorated by yellowish or greenish efflorescences of different mineral salts and locally even the whole surfaces are covered by white snow-like powder. These are tiny crystals of bitter Glauber salt…