Priessnitz: Czech spa takes no-nonsense approach to wellness
View Gallery (3 images)
You won’t find New Age music, scented candles, tropical plants, waterfalls or bubbling fountains in this spa.
You will find cavernous halls, sparse treatment cubicles, stern- faced, white-coated attendants — all surrounded by old-world, some might say shabby, décor.
You will also find bargain prices.
The Priessnitz Spa Health Resort in the eastern part of the Czech Republic near the Polish border and some 155 miles from Prague is a serious, sterile place. About 70 percent of its clients are sent by their doctors, whose fees are paid for by the national health insurance. The remainder come for “wellness packages” made up of rest, relaxation and various forms of hydrotherapy.
The latter is the spa’s claim to fame. It is a health treatment founded there in 1822 by Vincent Priessnitz. As the story goes, young Priessnitz observed forest animals that cured their wounds by bathing in spring water. At age 16, he was seriously injured when run over by a cart. Doctors said he would be handicapped for life. Priessnitz imitated the animals and bathed in the springs and applying cold bandages to his broken ribs. After a year, he was healed.
Word of his cure spread and he became known as the “water doctor.”
Dr. Pavel Václavík, a cardiologist who heads the spa, believes there is a “miracle quality” to its waters. “There is something special about the water here,” he says. “I see it in the patients.”
I became a convert after submitting to the “one-stage and two-stage half bath.” I was on a ski vacation with a group of journalists, but I had been feeling poorly, certain that I was coming down with a nasty winter ailment. So I gave up skiing for a day and set off for a “cure.”
First a young, wholesome, pigtailed attendant, reminiscent of the fictional Swiss mountain girl, Heidi, told me to shed my clothes, drape myself in a sheet and follow her to the sauna. I am not normally a fan of saunas where, for me, the excessive heat is torture. But this one was not overly hot. I enjoyed the pleasant warmth that penetrated my body.
After 10 minutes, another attendant, this one a stocky, middle-aged, no-nonsense taskmaster, appeared. She wrapped me in a wet, ice cold sheet, leaving me to wonder as I shivered if this would shock away the germs. She then continued the wrap with layers of dry sheets topped off with a blanket.
“Schlaf (sleep), Frau,” she directed in German. The wrappings were tight, but in this mummy mode, following orders, I drifted off to sleep.
When I awoke, I felt a desperate need to break loose of the constraints that had me paralyzed. Fortunately I was soon freed and taken off to a bath of lukewarm water, where the sturdy attendant scrubbed me vigorously from head to toe with a brush. After the scrub, she gave me a rub-down, splashed me with cold water, and repeated the process. “Gut Frau,” she said again and again, as if to assure me that this punishment was healthy.
For the finale, she told me to stand up, pointed a hose at me and sprayed me with more icy water. “Fertig,” she announced as she finished.
The process left me feeling a tad weary, but also revived and revitalized. And, it must have chased away those germs, because I did not get sick.
According to the Priessnitz brochure, the treatment “encourages blood circulation and function of internal organs” and “substantially improves resistance to infections, external physical influence and psychical stress.”
A more popular treatment also available at the spa is the herbal bubble bath given in ancient wooden tubs. Customers sit in a tub of water “that feels like blood temperature,” said Gill Martin, from Britain. “They throw in this disgusting brown stuff” (a mixture of 12 herbs) and the water begins to bubble.
“A Jacuzzi tends to be harsh with fierce bubbles, but these are soothing, gentle bubbles,” Martin said. After the bath, customers are covered in a blanket and left to rest. Most fall asleep. Martin called it a soothing and relaxing experience.
Other Priessnitz treatments include inhalation, electro-sleep, music therapy, magneto therapy, oxygen therapy, lymph drainage, gas injections, acupuncture and computer kinesiology. Most are reserved for those with medical problems.
Antonia Okrouhla, a retired Czech factory worker, and Anna Pavlobska, a retired hairdresser from a nearby village, shared a small room at the spa where both were undergoing treatment for lung problems during monthlong stays paid for by state insurance. Their therapy consisted of inhalation, herbal baths, massages, breathing exercises and yoga. They also enjoyed long walks in the spa’s beautiful and vast wooded surroundings.
Okrouhla, on her 14th visit to the spa, said the treatments help minimize her asthma attacks. “I like this place. I can breathe well here. There’s a quiet, family atmosphere with beautiful nature and fresh air,” the cheery grandmother said.
Added Pavlobska: “I really like it here. It’s so peaceful and quiet, so calm. The people are nice and kind.”
The main hotel at the spa, an art nouveau structure, was built in 1910. In its day, it was splendid with its chandeliers, spiral staircase and elegant dining room. These days it could use a face lift. The immense lobby where patients and guests sit on stuffed chairs around low tables seems bleak and barren. The grim looks on the residents’ faces add a depressing note. No doubt many are depressed. “This is the only spa treating psychological problems in the Czech Republic,” said general director Václavík.
Václavík wants to expand horizons, moving a bit from the medicinal mode to a beauty approach. He’s enlisted the help of Miss Europe, Monika Zitkova of the Czech Republic, to promote weekend beauty packages.
Most of the spa guests and patients, about 12,000 per year, come from the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany and Slovakia. Some of the 350 staff members, including 15 doctors, speak a bit of German. Almost none speaks English.
But, language is not required to soak in an herbal bath or enjoy a massage. And, the prices at Priessnitz are hard to beat. After a spa treatment, you can enjoy a large and excellent Czech beer for 25 Czech koruna, just a bit more than $1.
Leah Larkin, a member of the Society of American Travel Writers, is a journalist living in France.
If you go ...
Winter visitors to the Priessnitz Spa Health Resort can enjoy skiing on nearby slopes and take advantage of a ski and treatment package for 250 euros, which includes a week’s lodging, half-board and spa treatments.
A week’s package with full board, spa and beauty treatments is 300 euros. A half-hour massage is about 5 euros; the herbal bubble bath, about 5 euros; the one-stage, two-stage half bath, 10 euros. One night’s lodging with full pension and spa treatments ranges in price from 64 to 97 euros depending on season and size of room. Although the Czech currency is the koruna, foreign visitors can pay in euros.
The Priessnitz resort is 1¼ miles from the town of Jesenik on the far eastern spur of the Rychlebské Mountains. For reservations and more information, call (+420) (0)584-491-268.
There are 38 spas in the Czech Republic with several hundred springs and a natural supply of mineral-rich mud. See www.spas.cz for more information.
— Leah Larkin
