The OLDEST spa
in the Czech lands
The opening of the 861st spa season? By no means!
Great celebrations are probably in store for the residents of Teplice in 2154. If spa seasons are counted as they have been to date, it will be the 1,000th anniversary in 139 years, or rather a presumed anniversary, as the numbering of spa seasons is based on shaky foundations just like the discovery of the local springs, which Wenceslaus Hajek of Libočan dated as being in 762.
A swineherd who grazed his pigs every day also had one pig in his herd that always lagged behind the others because it limped. That is why he was not initially surprised at all that it got lost from time to time. After some time, the swineherd noticed that the pig stopped limping and was even livelier than the others. It still separated from the herd every day and so one day the swineherd decided to trail it to find out where it went to and what was behind its miraculous recovery. He followed the pig as far as a place where a hot spring rose from the ground. The pig was wallowing contentedly in the mud there. As soon as he came back home with his herd, he hurried over to yeoman Kolostůj, to whom that region belonged, to tell him what he had seen. Kolostůj founded a town in the same place which later began to be called Teplice. (Chronicle of Wenceslaus Hajek of Libočan)