The Imperial Baths will offer several tour options upon opening

Karlovy Vary - The Imperial Spa in Karlovy Vary will offer several visitor routes upon its opening. This will allow not only for a tour of the building but also for guided or theatrical tours and educational tours for schools. The Imperial Spa, which has been under reconstruction since December 2019, is set to reopen this June. It aims to become one of the most attractive landmarks in the region, said Miloš Bělohlávek, head of the visitor services at the site, today at a conference on the preservation of monuments in the Karlovy Vary Region.

"The Imperial Spa is unique in that it is not focused on just one type of culture. It is neither a museum nor a cultural center or an educational institution, but it fulfills all these roles simultaneously. Although it has an exhibition area, it is not a collecting institution; rather, we offer tours of the building as a whole, which means that visitors can view the museum exhibition, the entire building, and they can take a guided tour or a tour of the Imperial bath. We believe we can stake a claim to being one of the five most visited sites in the region," Bělohlávek stated.

It is tentatively planned that the basic entrance fee will be 250 crowns, with a discounted rate for seniors or the disabled set at 150 crowns. Children under 15 will have free admission.

The exhibition in the Imperial Spa will focus on spa treatments and the use of natural resources for therapeutic purposes, as well as famous visitors to the spa. It is intended to be a multimedia exhibition rather than a static one. A tour of the atrium with an integrated hall, which will be a technical rarity in itself, may also be interesting. Additionally, there will be video mapping on the walls of the atrium outside of events, again featuring themes of natural spa treatment.

Bělohlávek believes that the building itself will certainly be an attractive destination. When it opened in 1895, it was one of the most modern buildings in Europe at that time, according to him. The Imperial Spa was equipped with technologies that were unseen elsewhere at that time. The current reconstruction restores the neglected building to its former glory. The entire reconstruction of the national cultural monument is expected to cost a total of 1.4 billion crowns.