Loket castle - Marianske Lazne spa - Brewery Chodovar

Route: Karlovy Vary - Loket castle - Marianske Lazne spa - Brewery Chodovar - Karlovy Vary
Duration: 7 h
Firstly we will visit to the Loket castle, built of stone,  at the beginning of the 13th century,  it was a royal castle built on a landmark promontory within the Ohře River bend. It used to be called the "Key to the Czech Kingdom". Soon after, a small town, first mentioned in 1288, arose below the castle. In the early 15th century the royal town was fortified and turned into an important focal point of the Czech Crown. In the course of the 19th century, the town became famous for its local porcelain factory. Our tour will leads through expositions of porcelain, collections of former town museum, museum of arms to the premises of former prison where an impressive and authentic demonstration of torture can be seen. Next we will visit to the Marianske Lazne which the second biggest Czech spa after Karlovy Vary. There are 40 medicinal mineral springs located directly within the town precincts. This relatively young spa town was founded at the beginning of the 19th century, but the influx of patients coming to take the waters caused rapid growth.  However local people were aware of the springs as early as the 1200s. In 1528, King Ferdinand ordered the springs to be tested for their salt content.In the years 1805–1807, Dr. Johann Josef Nehr founded the first brick-built house for spa guests near the Cross Spring (Křížový) called 'The Golden Globe', built on the site of a former wooden cabin.Between 1817 and 1823, three noted citizens - horticulturist Václav Skalník, architect Jiří Fischer and builder Anton Turner, financially supported by the Abbot Karel Kašpar Reitenberger, transformed this inhospitable, marshy valley into a beautiful park town featuring neo-Classical spa houses, pavilions and colonnades. In the mid-19th century numerous personalities from the world of culture, science and politics arrived from all over the world to visit Mariánské Lázně. Some of the most notable names from this period include Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Prince Friedrich of Saxony, Earl Kašpar Šternberk, Joens Jakob Berzelius, Václav Jan Tomášek, and Marie Szymanowsky. Next we will visit to Chodovar’s brewery which has a long and rich history. The oldest written document that tells of Chodovar’s beginning is in 1573, but a brewery existed before this. Long ago in the 12th century, there was a small, local castle, and the dwellers of this castle carved cellars in the granite rock for beer brewing. As the legend goes, a labrador dog named Albi found a spring with fresh mineral water, and this water was then used by the castle residents to brew beer. These ancient cellars, carved in the granite rock beneath the brewery, are still used today. The oldest document about the volume of beer production is from the year 1634, and says that 1,173 hectoliters were brewed. Then, in 1749, the brewery increased its production to 2,155 hectoliters. Today, Chodovar not only is a brewery, but also a leading beer spa. There we will take a Brewery tour during its you know the history of the brewery and traditional production methods of original Chodske beer in detail and alsotour includes beer tasting at the magic brewery fountain. After we return to Karlovy Vary.
Price: per person