Kyselka Spa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Kyselka Spa (Czech: Lázně Kyselka; German: Bad Giesshübl), older name Kysibl, is a complex of former public baths in the village of Kyselka in the vicinity of Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic.
Mattoni's era
The local springs had been discovered hundreds of years ago; the first written account dates back to 1522. In the 17th century the counts of Černín permitted their subjects to drink the Kyselka mineral water for free. The springs were first used for spa purposes in 1792 when the location was already widely known. The first spa buildings were built in the years 1826–1832 by Wilhelm von Neuberg. The fame of the spa and the tasty water was growing; in 1852 Otto of Greece visited the place and the main spring was named after him. In the course of time the spring had several owners; one of them, count Johann Joseph von Stiebar auf Buttenheim, came up with the idea to export the mineral water (1824) and established a small factory for the production of clay jugs in which the water was bottled. The local water was then sold in Vienna, Prague and also in Karlsbad.
In 1867 the main spring was rented by the Czech businessman of Italian-German origin Heinrich K. Mattoni who began to bottle the water in glass bottles and export it worldwide. In 1873 he had enough money to buy the spa and the surrounding land. Before he died in 1910, he managed to build a new colonnade which roofed the famous "Otta's spring" as well as the buildings of the sanatorium, the hydropathic institute, hotels, restaurants, promenades, the cableway, the chapel of Saint Anne (1884), his monumental residence ("The Chateau"), a hydroelectric power station and the buildings of the bottling plant. Finally he brought railway here so that quietness of the spa was not disturbed by wagons carting mineral water. During his epoch the spa flourished and it has not reached such prosperity ever since. Mattoni's descendants nevertheless kept this property until the end of World War II.
In the hands of the state
After the war, the buildings shortly served as a refugee camp for orphans from the Greek Civil War and after that as a sanatorium for children. It was closed down after the fall of the Communist regime in 1989. During this period, the premises deteriorated to some degree but were at least somehow maintained.
