The first winter season of 1923/24: a bobsleigh run, a toboggan track and the Helmer ski jump
In the winter of 1923/24 Marienbad set out to receive guests in the cold months for the first time. A winter sports club, a handful of hoteliers and an abbot gave the town a bobsleigh run, a toboggan track, a ski jump and natural ice. A look back at the season that brought winter to the spa town.
A spa town in the snow — over a hundred years ago
Anyone who visits Marienbad in winter today finds snow-covered colonnades, warm baths and a spa park that seems especially quiet under snow. We have described what Marienbad in winter looks like elsewhere. That the town counts as a winter destination at all is, however, not a given: Marienbad was for a long time above all a summer spa, and many houses stayed closed in winter.
That changed with an experiment which the hotel newspaper of the Ensana houses recalled in 2023, a hundred years on: the first official winter sports season of 1923/24.
Why a winter season at all?
Five years after the war the spa business was still struggling economically, and guest numbers were not rising. The local winter sports association, the Winter Sport Club (WSC) with about 120 active members, had an idea: it would persuade some hoteliers to keep their houses open in winter, and it proclaimed a winter season for the period from December 1923 to March 1924.
To give guests a reason to travel, a wide-ranging programme was put together.
The programme of the season
The bobsleigh run. The main attraction was to be a bobsleigh run that began at the Krakonoš hotel and led down to the former market hall. It was announced at 1,600 metres in length with four bends; start and finish were linked by telephone, and the course was electrically lit.
The toboggan track. A large toboggan track started at Kamzík and ended after about 1,000 metres and four bends in the forest street (Lesní ulice). Individuals, pairs and young people took part, both in ordinary runs and in competition.
Ski courses and excursions. Ski instructors taught in the individual hotels. For skiers there were tours into the surroundings — to Kladská, to Vlčí hřbet (Wolf Ridge) and to Lesný, the highest point in the area — as well as races in downhill, cross-country and relay. One item in the programme was simply for fun: a paper chase.
The Helmer ski jump. In the deep valley between the Lunapark and the reservoir the Helmer ski jump was built. Jumpers launched from a steep slope across the Kamenný potok (Stone Brook) and landed on a meadow by the road. It was named after the then abbot, Gilbert Helmer, presumably because the monastery had made the land available. Traces are said still to be found on the ground. The same abbot led the expansion of the New Baths in 1912–1913.
Natural ice. Natural rinks were laid out on the tennis courts by the Forest Spring and in the park below Villa Lil, with skating instructors there too. Figure-skating competitions with evening concerts and fancy-dress contests on skates were planned. A hockey team also formed in the town and was to give exhibition matches.
Horse sleighs. Finally, races for single and double horse-drawn sleighs were announced. Horse sleighs were used for excursions into the surrounding countryside and for a parade through the streets of the town.
How local people spent the winter
The winter pleasures of the First Republic were enjoyed more by local people than by visiting guests. Tobogganing ruled among winter sports, not least because the streets on the slopes — and most of them are on slopes — were closed to vehicles when snow lay. People tobogganed above all on the Old Karlovy Vary Road, on forest tracks from Beskyd and from Kamzík down to Lesní ulice, on the Kladská road, below Panorama, near Karkulka and in Pottovo údolí. For the smallest children the short slopes in the parks were enough.
What we know — and what we do not
This account rests on an article in the hotel newspaper, which in turn draws on a local history site. The lengths, numbers of bends and equipment come from the programme announced at the time; how long and how regularly the facilities were actually in use in the winter of 1923/24 is not recorded in the material available to us. The location of individual places — the former market hall or Villa Lil, for instance — can also only be reconstructed approximately today. We therefore tell the story as what it was: a bold plan by which Marienbad meant to extend its calendar.
And today?
Today Marienbad can be enjoyed all year round, with walks in the snow, cross-country skiing in the Slavkov Forest and the baths of the Ensana houses. If you are interested in the sporting side of the town, you will find an overview in Sporting Marienbad. The idea that the town has its own atmosphere in winter too was brought into the world by the 1923/24 season — and with hindsight it was not the worst of ideas.
Sources
Studies and official documents this article relies on. Our content does not replace medical advice.
- Marienbad News, winter 2023 (Ensana Health Spa Hotels) — article "From history: the first attempt at a winter spa season in 1923" — Printed edition of the hotel newspaper (Czech only); the article names the local history site Hamelika as its source. The figures for lengths, bends and equipment come from the season programme announced at the time and are retold here in our own words; they are not independently confirmed in the material available to us.
- New Baths — 130 years (Marienbad.com) — Abbot Gilbert Helmer led the expansion of the New Baths in 1912–1913.
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