Maria Spring (Mariin pramen)
Natural CO₂ gas (99.7%)
Not a spring in the classic sense: what rises from the depths here is not water but almost pure carbon dioxide (99.7%) — “Maria’s gas”, which only secondarily dissolves into the shallow groundwater. It was this gas vent that gave the town its name. Used in dry baths and gas injections, the gas boosts circulation and eases the heart and blood vessels; the treatment is exclusive to the spa houses.
At a glance
Where it rises
Parks & town
Type
CO₂ gas spring — not for drinking
Traditionally used for
The sulphurous smell of this gas vent once earned the place the name "Stinking Meadow", before it was renamed after an image of the Virgin Mary — and it was in use even before the spa town was founded. The gas is now captured and applied at the neighbouring Maria Spa in dry CO₂ baths and gas injections — the treatment that made Marienbad famous. The vent lies behind the Central Baths; you cannot bathe in it, of course.
A little history
Probably the town’s longest-used healing resource: in 1609 Joachim Libštejnský of Kolowrat took a cure here with the water of the so-called Stinking Spring on the advice of M. Raudenius, a physician from Horní Slavkov. The name Maria Spring is recorded from 1766; legend traces it to an image of the Virgin Mary that a veteran soldier fixed to a nearby tree in gratitude for his recovery. The outlets lay in a small peat bog. Six outlets were captured in 1929–1932, and after 2006 a gas pool was created from which the gas is pumped for treatments.
Source: Mineral springs in Mariánské Lázně for the drinking cure (Bartoš, Nečasová, Knára, 2018).
How the spring gas is used
The gas of this spring is not drunk but applied in the spa houses: as a dry CO₂ bath in a sealed sack, or as a gas injection under the skin. Both treatments are prescribed and dosed by the spa physician. This page informs; it is no substitute for medical advice.
Learn more about CO₂ therapy