Hotel Thermal

Designed by architects Věra and Vladimír Machonin and built between 1967 and 1976, Hotel Thermal is Karlovy Vary's best-known work of modernist architecture and has served as the central venue of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival every year since its completion. Its open-air pool, connected to the complex's Saunia Thermal Resort wing, is described by the operator as filled with genuine spring hot water drawn from the town's vřídelní voda network — the same bicarbonate-sulphate thermal water that feeds Karlovy Vary's dozen historic springs. Unlike the town's Habsburg-era colonnades, the Brutalist Thermal complex falls outside the boundary of the UNESCO Great Spas of Europe inscription, but its rooftop pool remains one of the few places to swim outdoors in the town's genuine thermal water rather than merely drink or bathe indoors in it.