9 - Gisela´s Resting Place and Rudolf´s Rock

The spa surroundings were purposefully shaped in natural landscape forms. The landscape, imbued with a nostalgic atmosphere, was interlaced with forest promenades and irregularly running paths leading to vistas and views of the spa resort and distant horizons. For that reason, vantage points with resting places and gazebos were built in exposed places and often in rocky outcrops. These resting places were fitted with stone benches and tables, where spa guests were served refreshments. The first open-air picnics would take place here.

An archetype of Arcadia reminiscent of the Graeco-Roman world that was being built in Karlovy Vary was also taken there. Heinrich Mattoni, influenced by outstanding expert in Kyselka and its natural resources, Dr Löschner, picked up the threads of previous developments and continued to develop the network of forest roads in the spirit of Neo-Romanticism and complemented it with further points in the countryside. In 1900, the forest promenades around Kyselka counted several dozen kilometres of paths around the enchanting countryside. The Kyselka spa thus became a model for other spa resorts in both the immediate and distant areas.

Gisela’s resting place, where you are now standing, offered a breathtaking side view of the centre of the spa with the spa promenade, colonnade and Spa Restaurant, and a vista towards the Ohře (Eger) River, as well as towards the pavilion of Otto’s Spring. The romantic rock promontory was known as Rudolf’s Rock (Rudolfova skála) and, just as in Karlovy Vary, grateful spa guests would install memorial inscriptions and plaques there to express their thanks for their recovery. The vantage points were named after the children of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Elisabeth, nicknamed Sisi, Archduchess Gisela and Crown Prince, Archduke Rudolf.