Kaiserbad Spa

Tourist attraction · Carlsbad

Kaiserbad Spa

Tourist attraction · Carlsbad

Mariánskolázeňská 2, 360 01 Karlovy Vary 1, Czechia

Highlights

Discover a beautifully reconstructed palace that hosts stunning concerts and offers a glimpse into the grandeur of a historic emperor's spa.

Mariánskolázeňská 2, 360 01 Karlovy Vary 1, Czechia Get directions

cisarskelazne.cz

@cisarskelazne

@atlasobscura

The Ultimate Guide to Stunning, Surprising, or Hidden Filming Locations

"The chipped paint, cracked walls, and creaking floors give the Imperial Spa at Karlovy Vary a haunted aura, making it seem less like a spa and more like a sanitarium where guests were forced to relax until they teetered on the edge of insanity. But in its heyday, it attracted noble visitors from all over the world, and after its final closure it was the film setting for a legendary secret agent’s rebirth. Viennese architects Ferdinand Fellner and Herman Hellmer designed and built the Imperial Spa, also known as Kaiserbad, on the site of a former brewery in Carlsbad (Karlovy Vary), Bohemia, during the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The spa was built to accommodate the increasing number of elite visitors who came to Carlsbad for the spa industry that had grown up around the city’s numerous thermal springs. The cutting-edge spa and wellness facilities in the private spa cabins included hot, cold, steam, peat, and mineral baths, as well as massages and electrotherapy. The Zander Hall, on the first floor, housed 64 electric-powered exercise machines designed by the pioneering Swedish physician Dr. Jonas Gustav Wilhelm Zander. Zander’s revolutionary machines mimicked the exertions required by physical labor. His machines, and the philosophy behind them, were an influential part of a cultural shift that came to prize exercise over bloodletting and purging as a means of staying healthy. Today, the machines are gone but the hall is still adorned by Viennese artist Eduard Lebiedzky’s oil paintings depicting ancient Olympiads. It’s fitting that the paintings provide an atmosphere of athletic competition, as the building has its own competitive history. In 1907, 1911, 1923, or 1929, the Imperial Spa hosted international chess tournaments. And for a short period in the 1980s, the spa was turned into a casino, before an even shorter failed attempt to revive the building as a luxury hotel. Kaiserbad’s grandiose atmosphere and eye-catching interior decorations have attracted two film crews so far. Jackie Chan used the building’s revolving door as a prop for a truly inspired slapstick fight in 2003’s Shanghai Knights. The building’s brief stint as a casino and history of high-dollar international tournaments foreshadowed a bigger film role, in 2006’s Casino Royale, where it provided the exterior shots of the titular casino." - ATLAS_OBSCURA

https://www.atlasobscura.com/lists/movie-sets-you-can-visit

View Postcard for Kaiserbad Spa

Adelya Nesrsta

Google

Great tour - but sadly only on CZ, so they are not counting that tourists will visit them 🤣 reconstruction - just beautiful but according to the tour - a lot of thing stillnot finished! Location for orchestra - amazing , already want to see concerts there.

Kostiantyn Ivlev

Google

A beautiful reconstructed palace, an excellent hall with great sound. I attended a concert by the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra and a performance by Filip Janczyk. I'm just delighted. An excellent place for music concerts.

Alexandra Mist

Google

.Absolutely not worth it, it closes at 6, we were there at 4.30 to buy tickets, we were offered to buy tickets without guide, it has cost 500 kc for two and for that price we visited several empty rooms. Some interiors were pretty but it obviously is not worth the price. I'd expect tours without guide to be much cheaper, feel robbed.

Natalia Danilovich

Google

Museum with 50Kc entrance fee where you can see the interior of former spa which was opened in the 19th century. The first floor is in better condition, you can see the former ballroom (still in pretty good condition). The rest of the building requires renovation. However, before the reconstruction happens, you have a chance to catch the authentic picture. The whole tour takes not more than half an hour.

monica pronzini

Google

This is a wonderful building and it can be visited for 50 KČ. The interior needs restoration but gives you a good idea of the grandeur of this emperor's spa. Not all the rooms are open to the public but they are mostly all similar bathrooms. On the first floor the big room has panels explaining what it was: a kind of gym with curious apparatus for medical workout. Very interesting.

Auric Kühnel

Google

We had a wonderful little tour through the emperor's bath, which made us want to have a look at the rest of the building as well. It's not a full-day program, but definitely worth the time and money. All of the staff was very friendly and accommodating and made the experience perfect!

Anastasiya

Google

Tours are only in czech, for english -speaking tourists is not so interesting (( But the building itself is very beautiful inside

Deema Abu Naser

Google

Not worth it whatsoever- they were not clear that our ticket didn’t include the baths, and that’s all we wanted to see- instead we were taken on a 45 minute tour where we went to empty rooms that had a few paintings, and we would keep asking when we would see the baths with no answer- then at the end it was finally clarified that the tickets are separate. We never wanted to see the tour of the building- we wanted the baths- and we didn’t get to see them because we needed to move on. So it was a complete waste of time, and honestly not interesting enough to spend an hour there; better to visit other places or walk around the town.