Karlovy Vary Spa Hotel Thermal, Czech Republic

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Icon or eyesore? The towering Spa Hotel Thermal in the glamorous Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary stands out, but what many people don’t know about is its fascinating past. Here’s a review of  the Spa Hotel Thermal and two other landmark hotels, the Hotel Imperial and the Grandhotel Pupp.

 

Karlovy Vary Spa Hotel Thermal

Glancing out the windows of the Spa Hotel Thermal at Dvořák Park and the pedestrian spa zone of Karlovy Vary, I try to broach the subject delicately, not sure how to bring up the fact that the hotel I’m being hosted at, a large block of a building, is, er, no great beauty.

“So,” I say to Tamara Klein, Director of Sales & Marketing for the 70s-era spa hotel as we sit in the airy buffet restaurant. “Some of the guidebooks on the Czech Republic aren’t exactly, um, complimentary when they describe the hotel. How do you deal with that?”

Getting past the guidebooks

Specifically I’m thinking of Rick Steves, who calls it ‘unfortunate.’ Or Rough Guides, which refers to it as a ‘Communist eyesore’. I’m also wondering how I’m going to review the Hotel Thermal. I can’t call it a looker if it’s not.

It’s not that the Spa Hotel Thermal is a ‘blot on the landscape’ as one review says. It’s more that its towering exterior stands out in such stark contrast to the delicate pastels and ornate architecture that dominates Karlovy Vary, and gives this famous Czech spa town such a floaty feminine feel. Like a sturdy tree surrounded by wood nymphs, I decide.

A hotel that stands out

Taking a bite of my savoury goulash and bacon dumplings I try to think of something positive to say. Since I haven’t even checked in yet, I can’t mention the spa, which is my main reason for visiting Karlovy Vary, a town renowned for its hot mineral springs that gush out from fountains and graceful colonnades all over town.

“You’ll never get lost if you stay at the hotel,” I finally come up with. “It really stands out.”

Tamara shrugs philosophically. “We’re not so beautiful outside, but this is what it is. From the inside we’re a normal modern 4-star hotel. But what people don’t realize is that the building was very modern for its time. The architects were so precise, how they thought about corners, door systems, the behind-the-scenes workings. ”

Socialist Brutalist Architecture

Welcome to Socialist Brutalism, an architectural style that embraces raw concrete, geometric lines and utilitarianism. Stern, some say harsh, its seriousness is no doubt intentional, perhaps a reaction against earlier frivolous decorative styles or a reflection of the ‘moral seriousness’ of the the Czech Communist era.

The history of the Hotel Thermal

The Hotel Thermal was designed by two well-known Czech architects, the husband and wife team of Vladimír Machonin and Věra Machoninová. It was 1977, 12 years before the Velvet Revolution that would see the Czechoslovakia break peacefully from communism. (The Czech Republic and Slovakia separated in 1993.)

Purpose built to host the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, a prestigious festival that dates back to 1946, the Hotel Thermal was also intended to showcase the modern edge of Czech architecture.

The Hotel Thermal today

In addition to being a spa hotel, with a large wellness and spa centre spread out over three floors, the Hotel Thermal continues to host the Karlovy Vary Film Festival every July, and it’s one of the rare venues equipped to do so. Its grand Cinema Hall seats 1148 while two more theatres can seat another 1,000.

“Each theatre has a balcony,” Tamara says, “and from the balcony you can go out to the terrace, because there is a beautiful view down to the city. How many theatres do you know that were designed with an outdoor terrace?”

Well, none, now that I think of it. In fact, I don’t know many hotels with theatres in them at all.

Looking at the Hotel Thermal from the outside in

After sampling Karlovy Vary’s famous mineral-rich hot springs in a private bathing cabin at the hotel spa, then taking time out for a swim and a sauna, I head up into the forested hills that rise up over the spa zone. At every different vista, I find myself looking down on the Spa Hotel Thermal.

It’s amazing how a little knowledge can change a person’s perception. Now that I’m aware the Spa Hotel Thermal is a landmark example of Socialist Brutalism and not just randomly block-like, I can’t help seeing it differently, as much a symbol of a time and place as the lavish Grandhotel Pupp at the far end of Karlovy’s spa zone or the fairytale-looking Hotel Imperial that blinks down over the town.

 

A Karlovy Vary icon

A major revamp to update the rooms and the lobby of the Spa Hotel Thermal is in the works, but – and I applaud this – the exterior will stay the same. Like it or loathe it, the Spa Hotel Thermal is a part of history and, in a way, a living museum of a now-vanished time.

“Who knows?” Tamara had said, “Maybe in 150 years people will stop laughing.”

I can’t speak for the guidebooks, but I’ve stopped laughing already.