Tuesday 28 June: Trenčianske Teplice another spa town much like Karlovy Vary which we visited in the Czech Republic. Its history dates from the 13th century although it is assumed that the springs should have already been known to the Roman legions in the 2nd century.
This is about as far north the Roman Empire extended. However, according to legend it was discovered by a lame shepherd looking for a stray sheep. He found a lake, from which a sulphuric odour was spreading. After a few baths, he noticed that the sheep was getting better, so he decided to immerse his aching limbs in the warm waters of the lake. The reputation of miraculous water thus began to spread. Another true legendary story from Central Europe. The town’s coat of arms features a sheep so it must be true.We’ve realised that Trenčianske Teplice resembles Karlovy Vary in principle only. No up-market brand name stores, exclusive shops and five star hotels. The town gives the impression is of a resort in decline. Almost half of the old hotels in the town centre are closed and/or derelict. There are some grand hotels, however not very many.
The council areas such as pedestrian malls, parks and roadsides show marked signs of neglect. Lots of weeds and overgrown gardens. The Tram that ran the 6 km from Trenčianska Tepla to Trenčianske Teplice has been abandoned and the tracks and station are overgrown with weeds.The town appears to service mainly Slovakians. Only a little German and Russian is spoken and even less English.
We met Jens and Cristel Uhl, a German couple living in Ireland who have been coming here for many years (They orgainse tours for Irish bands on the continent).They said that during the communist era, the hotels were filled with workers on holidays. Since then however many properties have been bought by wealthy speculators who have done nothing with the buildings, much to the disappointment of the locals.
"Welcome to the Hotel Slovakia, Such a lovely place,Such a lovely face,
Plenty of room at the Hotel Slovakia
Any time of year,
You can find it here..."
The town itself though is pleasant, if a little architecturally diverse, with some fairly ugly buildings in the town centre, dating from the communist era.
The most distinctive building is the Hammam Spa. Completed in 1888, construction began when the former owner of the spa, Iphigenia de Castries d'Harcourt, saw the model of a luxurious Turkish bath at the World Exhibition in Paris.She travelled to Egypt and asked the viceroy Izmail for permission to build a Hammam (Arabic for bath). He accepted her request and sent his court architect along with her to Trenčianske Teplice to design it.
The exterior of the Hammam Spa is stunning, but is crumbling and currently undergoing restoration. The interior is also stunning, as confirmed by Frances, who went there for a spa bath. As expected no photography inside, but I’ve included some photos from their website.
We had arrived in Trenčianske Teplice one day after the end of their International Film Festival featuring mainly local and some international movies.A curious thing we’ve noticed on TV in these countries is that instead of dubbing or subtitling English spoken movies or TV series, they provide a running commentary on the action and dialogue in the local language.
If you strain, you can still hear the original language softly in the background. We haven’t watched much local TV. Interestingly, although most accommodation has provided a flat screen TV (although a couple still had old CRT TVs), they are all very early models that do not have an HDMI connection. A little frustrating as we brought some TV series on hard drive with a HDMI cable to watch in the evenings, but have had to settle for watching them on the small laptop screen.
As we were leaving, of course, we met the most wonderful people Jens and Cristel Uhl with the heaviest of European accents. We were a little taken aback when the said they were from Ireland - they has accents, but definitely not Irish. Anyway, they are heavily involved in promoting Irish bands and travel Europe managing and promoting modern Irish Music - fantastic people.The photo was taken when they were a little bit younger.