The town of Cheb
Sightseeing in the town centre and trips in the surroundings
Cheb
There are many reasons for visiting the westernmost Czech town. Placed in the very heart of Europe, Cheb is rich in history, which reaches back to the 9th century. The first written note comes from 1061 in a document written by Jindřich IV, the King of Germany. In the early middle ages the building of the first stone castle was started.
In 1157 Cheb was inherited by the German Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa. Under the reign of John of Luxembourg the town was added to the Czech crown lands as a hereditary security in 1322. The town was visited by the Czech King Jiří z Poděbrad, who also gave the name to the square where Hvezda Hotel is found.
Probably the most known event that ever happened in Cheb was the assassinating of Albrecht z Valdštejna, the generalissimo of imperial troops, which took place on February 25, 1634, in the house where now the museum is placed. The room where the murder took place is furnished in the style of those times and is widely visited by tourists.
Come to Cheb to feel its unique atmosphere the way F. Schiller or J.W.Goethe once did. All the historical landmarks, such as the castle with the Black tower and the unique two-floor romanesque-gothic chapel, the picturesque symbol of the town, Spalicek, numerous religious sights and important merchant houses is almost in your arms' reach from Hvezda Hotel.
Places to visit in the surrounding area
There are 210 registered mineral springs in the region of Cheb, out of which 53 are used as a cure. They are mostly placed in the centre of the regoin around Františkovy Lázně and the SOOS reservation, a unique European phenomenon. The most attractive sights in the surrounding of Cheb are Seeberg castle, Kynžvart castle, Vildštejn castle in Slakná, pilgrim shrine Maria Loreto in Starý Hrozňatov, and, of course, the spa towns Mariánské Lázně and Františkovy Lázně.
Folk architecture sights also deserve your attention. The most valuable of them are found in Doubrava near Lipová and in Nový Drahov, which were declared as village reservations of folk architecture in 1995.
The most largely visited natural sights are the SOOS reservation, the protected landscape area Slavkovský les with its part called Kladská bogs national reservation. Moreover, there is Komorní Hůrka, the youngest volcano in central Europe, about 2km far from Františkovy Lázně. The idea to explore it came from J.W.Goethe. In commemoration of him there is his relievo at the entrance to the explorational tunnel.
There are many lakes that serve the tourists' recreational purposes, especially the dams Skalka and Jesenice and the pond Amerika near Františkovy Lázně.