Famous central-European spas of the 19th century

Romanian public figures in Karlsbad

Steliu Lambru, 10.10.2022, 14:00

The idea of having a vacation
or leisure time, the idea of spending a one-week or a two-week holiday somewhere is
rather recent in history. Beginning with the 19th century, once the collective
rights emerged, tourism became affordable for the social classes other than the
elites. As for the tourist resorts, they were also quick to appear. Resorts would mostly develop nearby areas that
had been previously known for the benefits the waters, of the air, or other
environmental qualities had upon the human organism. One of Europe’s most renowned
balneal spas was Karlsbad, today known as Karlovy Vary, located in The Czech Republic,
on the country’s western border with Germany. Known ever since the Middle Ages
for its thermal waters with healing properties had healing effects for a number
of conditions, the resort enjoyed an impressive inflow of tourists. Among the famous
names who visited the Karlsbad Spa were those of Russian Emperor Peter the Great, Turkey’s first president, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, German writer Johann Wolfgang Goethe or German composer Ludwig van Beethoven.

But there were also
Romanians who visited Karlsbad. Historian Radu Marza, in his volume Romanian Travelers
and patients in Karlsbad provided an account of Romanians’ presence in that
posh resort.

Radu Marza:

The history
of Karlsbad as a balneal resort begins with the Medieval age, in the 14th
century. Yet the history of Karlsbad as we all know it, with the resonance its
name it has today, begins in the 18th century, or thereabouts. Also
mentioned and documented several are names of individuals hailing from the
Romanian space. The first character about whom we even know very many things is
a boyar named Barbu Stirbey, an Oltenian boyar who travelled to Karlsbad in
late 18th century.

Scientific studies confirmed
the resort’s beneficial action on the health condition of the human body and on
regaining the individual’s work capacity. As for the physicians, they are doing
their job and recommend the resort. Also thanks to the thermal waters, the breathtaking
natural landscape made Karlsbad one of Europe’s top five spas. Added to that
was the architecture of the buildings erected there. Just like the other
tourists, the Romanian tourists also arrived there drawn by the lake’s miraculous
properties of the place and the beauty of the surroundings.

Historian
Radu Marza:

We discovered
those Romanian visitors or travelers going there were in no way different from
visitors coming from elsewhere. Which means they perfectly fit in with that, let’s
just say, that trend of going to the spa. And it was not just the trend of going
to Karlsbad, there were also many other spas in the European space, but also spas
of the Romanian space. By all means, those in the Romanian space have a scope,
a prestige and significantly less capabilities than Karlsbad. But the
phenomenon is the same.

Who are the Romanian celebrities
who paid a visit to the Czech spa? According to Radu Marza, there were politicians’
names on the list, yet there was also info on other names, more or less.

Alexandru Vaida-Voevod
was a physician there and he is a personality as such, it is not only as a
physician that his figure is worth remembering. There were, for instance, Ionel
Brătianu, Queen Marie, various prime ministers, that including Iuliu Maniu,
Nicolae Titulescu also dropped by, Constantin Argetoianu or other public
figures. And there are also several sources about some of the personalities,
there was a string of pieces of documentary information, other such people might have
dropped by as well, but they were rather low-profile, if I may say so. And then we don’t know many accurate things about their
presence, yet the presence of other such people is a very well documented one.

However, going to the spa in Karlsbad
also acquired a social dimension, and not only a healing one.

Historian Radu
Mârza:

Karlsbad enjoyed that kind of fame in the
Romanian space as well. And we even came cross, once, over a very interesting
source of the 1920s, a little article published in a Romania magazine, dwelling
on the fact that it was a matter of bad taste, wondering, in the summer or in
early summer, where should you spend the summer season? Because it was obvious
you would go to Karlsbad. It somehow
was a social call, not going there was out of the question. You did not get any validation, socially speaking, if you didn’t go to Karlsbad. It was obvious that such a truth
did not apply entirely, that kind of opinion was not a widely-accepted tenet, yet
very many people had that kind of mindset. That is why Karlsbad was a place for
you to go to spend your vacation, to follow this or that medical procedure, but
you also went there to make yourself visible and see other people, to meet certain
people of your entourage.

However, the balneal resort
of Karlsbad was beyond reach for the lower classes, yet it was affordable for
the Romanian middle class. Teachers, civil servants, banking people, petty tradesmen
spent their vacation in Karlsbad. After 1945, after the communist regime was
instated and nationalization was forcefully implemented in both Romania and
Czechoslovakia, part of the working and the peasants’ class could
afford visiting Karlsbad. But even so, going to Karlsbad did not become a mass phenomenon
either, because of the strong borders and the grassroots’ low income. (EN)