The Elizabeth Spa in Karlovy Vary is set to undergo a complete roof renovation

Karlovy Vary - Karlovy Vary are preparing to replace the roof of the Elizabeth Spa, which is in an emergency state. Andrea Pfeffer Ferklová (ANO), the mayor, told the Czech News Agency (ČTK). The city originally considered dividing the repairs into several phases due to costs. However, now, thanks to the sale of two school buildings to the Karlovy Vary Region, the entire roof of the historic spa building will be repaired at once. Work is set to begin this summer.

"For these schools, we should receive an amount of 50 million crowns, which we will use to cover the repairs. The estimated price roughly corresponds," the mayor stated.

This was about the sale of school buildings on Vančurová and Svahová Streets, which are owned by the city, but the regional authority operates the schools there. The city council approved the sale on March 31, and the regional council will still vote on the purchase on April 20.

According to director Miluše Bartoňková, the roof of the Elizabeth Spa was temporarily repaired last summer, after heavy rains in July, water leaked into the building. After that, the city decided to repair at least part of the roof and allocated 11 million crowns for this purpose. However, the city council ultimately decided that it would be a complete renovation. "Last year, the pool was repaired for about half a million, all thermal valves in the entire building were replaced, and a new transformer station was installed," the director said regarding last year's repairs.

The leadership of Karlovy Vary is considering transferring the Elizabeth Spa from a business company to a contributory organization this year. This could happen in the summer, with the mayor indicating that the main reason is better access to grants. The city considered selling the historic public spa building two years ago, primarily due to the high cost of repairs and operation. Investors offered to invest about one billion crowns into the spa, while the Hilton chain wanted to build a hotel next to it. A second interested party, Karlovy Vary's Pupp, wanted to maintain it as a spa for the public and local hotels.

However, the sale did not go through, and the city decided to keep the Elizabeth Spa. In the future, a city information center is also expected to be located on the ground floor. The building houses the Institute of Spa and Balneology, and a clinic for the prevention and treatment of lifestyle diseases is also to be established there. The clinic is to be a comprehensive healthcare and educational institution focused on providing services in the fields of obesity, nutritional therapy, physiotherapy, sports medicine, and psychology.