The Philosophical Bath

The complex, conceived as a spa, was founded by Count F. A. Špork and built between 1694 and 1724. Its modest spring alone would not have attracted high-ranking clientele. Špork therefore erected many buildings of a kind that even the most important spas of the time could not boast. Their unusual purpose, decoration and relative positions, however, suggest an ambition beyond a merely secular bathing resort. Here Špork systematically “prepared a bath for the king”, as his ultimately futile efforts might diplomatically be described. He founded a House of Philosophers. From his rooms he could see the eternal light burning on the tomb altar on the opposite, hospital side of Kuks. He built the Golden Sun inn, beside which he erected a statue of Herkomann—Zvykomil, later recarved as Goliath. He furnished the racecourse with statues of forty dwarfs in the style of Callot. The most important sculptures are the allegories of Virtues and Vices in front of the hospital. The sculptor Matyáš Bernard Braun demonstrated his genius here and in the surrounding area. The walls of the hospital’s lower corridor carried a cycle of murals on the theme of Memento mori. Several highly interesting paintings with hermetic undertones are still kept here. The Baroque pharmacy within the hospital complex also deserves mention. In the nearby wood, “where saints grew on trees”, there were various representations of a magician with magical signs on a band ending with the name “Sporck”. He had his initials FAGUS (Latin for beech—Franz Anton Graf von Sporck) carved into the bark of large beech trees. This was his magical incantation. Many hermitages were established in the surrounding woods: those of St Paul and St Anthony, and St Bruno’s, known as At the Black Spring, between Kuks and Kocbeře. The Bethlehem sculpture site was created between 1726 and 1733. Although it is disputed whether Count F. A. Špork founded the first Masonic lodge in Bohemia, his activities rightly make him at least a precursor of the Freemasons. Older authors, such as Svátek and Lešehrad, claimed he founded the Lodge of the Three Stars on 26 June 1726. More recent research on Špork, for example by Preiss, refutes this event. (See Lysá nad Labem and Bon Repos.)