Zítek's hand
The National Theatre's architect building a water temple — 124 columns.
VitVit — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ray Swi-hymn from Sijhih-Taipei, Taiwan — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Ray Swi-hymn from Sijhih-Taipei, Taiwan — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Ray Swi-hymn from Sijhih-Taipei, Taiwan — CC BY-SA 2.0
Yes, in measure: hot mineral-rich waters the tradition drinks as cups spread through a day — the passing visitor tastes sips across different springs comparing heat and tang (some strongly ferrous). Blood-pressure and kidney cases alone should ask first — everyone else: the experience is the city's essence, miss it not.
Practically one kilometre chain: Park (slender white iron), then Mill (the summit), then Market (white Swiss timber lace), then the Hot Spring with its geyser — walk north-to-south and it builds dramatically. An hour with sips — returning on the opposite bank closes the ring.
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The spa city's icon: a 132-metre Neo-Renaissance gallery of 124 columns on the Teplá's bank — built by Josef Zítek, architect of Prague's National Theatre (1881), as a Greek temple to hot water: five springs rising beneath its roof at 53 to 65 degrees, each with marble tap and temperature plaque. The Karlovy rite is complete here: buy the ceramic spa cup with its spouted handle (you sip through the handle!), then move tap to tap drinking hot mineral water while promenading the gallery with half the city — the nineteenth century's cure still literally the daily scene, morning and evening. Its roof was designed a terrace (a side stair opens seasonally), twelve statues of the months crowning it — and its bankside line threads the city's four colonnades into one shaded chain: central Europe's loveliest spa kilometre.
The National Theatre's architect building a water temple — 124 columns.
From 53 to 65 degrees under one roof — each with its plaque.
Statues crowning the terrace roof.
Mlýnské nábřeží, 360 01 Karlovy Vary