vila Ritter Villa

Villa Ritter is a historical building in Karlovy Vary, built in 1897 as a private sanatorium. The building is located on the interface of the residential district of Westend and the location of Mala Versailles and is protected as a cultural monument of the Czech Republic.

The creation of the building is linked to the disassembly of unused land in 1896. City builder Josef Waldert prepared a stopping plan according to which plot 1 was handed over to the spa doctor MUDr. Adolf Ritter. The project for the year 1897 was developed by architect Fritz Hessemer from the Munich studio Augusta Exter, who initialled the original plans of the previous year. The construction took place quickly and was completed in 1897.

The building is stand-alone, two storey with attic and regular rectangular plan. The main facade goes to King George's street, while the south part of the villa is surrounded by a massive terrace. The style combines new romantic influences with elements of medieval castle architecture, which gives the building the form of a romantic castle. The dominant feature is corner towers with eight-sided roofs, high-grade risalts and battlements, resembling presbytery of castle chapels. Ships balconies with blind arcades connect shield risalts with corner towers.

The facades are decorated with late Gothic decor and the main portal carries a date of 1897. The entrance door to the basement and the elevated ground floor are complemented by rich wood carving in Gothic style. The Valb roof is covered with bobbies, and high chimneys with valb roofs stand out. Originally, the villa was surrounded by a enclosed garden in a romantic spirit with gotifying pillars and a garden house in the corner.

The interior contains a continuous corridor with cross vaults, which opens into the hall at the inner staircase. The railing of the staircase is decorated with polychrome non-orenesance motifs of foliage. The kitchen was located on the lower ground floor, while the upper floor served as an office and rooms. Decorative paintings with natural floral patterns were found in the rooms on the south side, but they were not preserved during reconstruction.

The villa carried the name of its investor, Dr. Adolf Ritter. In 1901 the balconies were added on the north side and in 1910 the covered porch connected with the corridor and also the raked terrace were implemented. The intention of 1912 to place in the south part of the garage was not realized. In 1931 the building was acquired by the District sickness insurance company in Brno, which adapted it to the spa house and renamed the Spa House Brno. In 1936, the original hydraulic elevator of the Vienna company Wertheim and Company was replaced by the machine of the company Českomoravska- Kolben- Daněk.

After privatisation, the building returned to the original name Villa Ritter. Currently it serves as a luxury hotel with detoxification program and the possibility of undergoing treatment procedures. Since 1992 the building has been registered as a cultural monument of the Czech Republic.

Villa Ritter represents one of the most valuable examples of residential architecture in Karlovy Vary. Its unique combination of historical styles and castle elements makes it an important urban point of the city that is behind the visit.