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Few Czech cities carry as much accumulated mythology as Karlovy Vary. Founded, according to tradition, when Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV discovered its thermal springs during a hunting expedition in the fourteenth century, the town grew over subsequent centuries into one of Europe's most celebrated spa destinations. Goethe, Beethoven, and Peter the Great all took the waters here, and the elegant colonnades they once strolled beneath still define the character of the place today.

The town sits in a narrow river valley in western Bohemia, where the Ohre and Tepla rivers meet beneath wooded hillsides. That geography is not incidental to the experience. The forested slopes press close on either side of the spa district, giving Karlovy Vary a sense of enclosure that feels more like a grand sanatorium than a conventional city centre. The main colonnades, including the Mill Colonnade and the Market Colonnade, run along the Tepla in a procession of neoclassical and wrought-iron architecture, and visitors still collect the warm, mineral-rich spring water in the long-spouted ceramic cups sold throughout the town.