Introduction to Marianske Lazne

46km (29 miles) SW of Karlovy Vary, 160km (100 miles) W of Prague

When Thomas Alva Edison visited Mariánské Lázne in the late 1800s, he declared, "There is no more beautiful spa in all the world."

Mariánské Lázne now stands in the shadow of the Czech Republic's most famous spa town, Karlovy Vary, but it wasn't always that way. First noted in 1528 by Bohemian historians, the town's mineral waters gained prominence at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century. Nestled among forested hills and packed with romantic and elegant pastel hotels and spa houses, the town, commonly known by its German name, Marienbad, has played host to such luminaries as Goethe (this is where his love for Ulrika von Levetzow took root), Mark Twain, Chopin, Strauss, Wagner, Freud, and Kafka. England's Edward VII found the spa resort so enchanting that he visited nine times and even commissioned the building of the country's first golf club.