Karlovy Vary

View of the city centre

Karlovy Vary (German: Karlsbad) is a city in the Czech Republic. As of 2015, about 50,000 people were living there. It is located in the west of the historical region of Bohemia. It is popular for its spa.

The city was in Austria-Hungary, and the people who lived there were mainly German-speaking. Bohemia was transferred to the new state of Czechoslovakia after World War I. The existence of such German-speaking peoples outside of Germany was used by Hitler as a reason to invade the Sudetenland (the German-speaking part of Bohemia and Moravia), which Germany did in 1938. This was a result of the Munich Agreement. This event was a prelude to World War II.

Other websites

• Karlovy Vary webpage