Continental Spa House, Cultural monument in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic.
Dům Continental, also called Lázeňský dům Continental, stands at Tržiště 378/27 in Karlovy Vary's spa centre. The five-story building has a six-axis street facade with paired windows on the outer axes, two large arched entrances at ground level, and a strongly projecting cornice above the ground floor. Its facade carries rich stucco and stone decoration, including gryphons, busts of Roman empresses and the monogram BB in the gables.
Berta Bernharth had the Continental built in 1888–1889 on the site of an old Baroque house, to a German Renaissance design by architect Hans Schidlo. In 1891 Konrád Eckl completed the ground floor with a shopping hall and an inner gallery, using iron structures and cast-iron columns from the Komárov ironworks. It was Karlovy Vary's first commercial portal with an inner shopping arcade. The house has been a cultural monument since 22 May 1991.
The house is named Continental, and its street facade carries the monogram BB for Berta Bernharth, who had it built. Look for the busts of Roman empresses and the gryphons in the stucco, and the carved Neo-Renaissance door with its wrought-iron grille at the left entrance. Since 2014 the building has been listed as a residence owned by Suisse Investment s.r.o.
The building stands at Tržiště 378/27, not on Sadova Street. Its six-axis facade has two large arched entrances; the left one keeps the original carved Neo-Renaissance door with a wrought-iron grille. Between the entrances are three arched windows separated by Tuscan columns. The house is listed as a residential building, so interior spa facilities are not open to visitors.
The house is named after its builder Berta Bernharth's project name "Continental"; the initials BB appear in the gables of the facade. The ground floor hall has a stucco ceiling with an oval of cartouches, festoons and flowers, and the pilasters carry relief grotesques and egg-and-dart rings.
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