Baroque Spa Kuks

Kuks was part of the Choustníkovo Hradiště estate. On November 15, 1664, the manor was bought from Margrave Leopold of Baden by the general of the Austrian cavalry, Jan Spork, for a price of 66,000 guldens. In 1684, the administration of the manor was taken over by the general’s older son, František Antonín Count Špork. At that time, Kuks was known only for its mineral springs. Spork set himself a highgoal, to make Kuks a spa at the highest world level. He succeeded, because the Kuks spa surpassed even the famous Karlovy Vary with its grandeur. The art-loving Count F.A. Spork surrounded himself with a retinue of artists, the most important of which are, for example, his court engraver Michael Heinrich Rentz, engraver Josef de Montalegre, painter Petr Jan Brandl and German poet Johann Christian Günther. The fame of the Kuks spa lasted a little over 30 years. After the death of F.A. Sporck in 1738, the spa activity slowly subsided. In 1740, Kuks was hit by a flood, which damaged the spa buildings by the shore, destroyed the breeding grounds, the gazebo and the summer house, and took with it the dwarves. Sporck’s successors were not interested in the restoration and further operation of the spa, and therefore the once important social and cultural center became a village of craftsmen and farmers. The uninhabited Sporck chateau burned down in 1896 and in 1901 the ruins of the chateau were torn down together with the ruins of the spa buildings. During the Second World War, the hospital was established as a home for the Hitler Youth for the Sudetenland region. In the 50s and 70s of the 20th century, part of the hospital premises served as an internal hospital for old age diseases and part of the hospital was used as a Regional Archive. At present, the national cultural monument Hospital Kuks is subject to national monument care.