Luhacovice

Luhacovice is the largest spa in Moravia, using strongly mineralised carbonated springs of which Vincentka is the best known and is sold nationally as a drinking water. What makes the town distinctive is what Dusan Jurkovic did to it between 1902 and 1914: commissioned to rebuild the spa buildings, he worked in a manner of his own that combined Slovak and Wallachian timber vernacular - carved gables, painted woodwork, steep shingled roofs, folk motifs - with the planning of the Vienna Secession, producing the Jan Cerny house, the Jurkovic house and others in a style that has no real parallel elsewhere and which was an argument about national identity as much as a design choice. The colonnade and park run along the valley. Janacek came here for many summers and composed; a festival carries his name.

What you actually see

• Jurkovic's timber buildings - carved gables and painted wood in a folk-modern idiom.
• Vincentka spring - the strongly mineralised water sold across the country.
• A valley colonnade and park - the spa laid out along the stream.
• Janacek's summers - the composer's regular stays, with a festival named for him.

When to go

May to September. A day.

Honest expectations

Treatments are for registered patients. The mineral water is strongly salty and not a pleasant drink for most. The town fills in high summer. Some Jurkovic buildings are hotels and not enterable.

Nearby

Zlin is twenty kilometres north-west; the Bile Karpaty rise south-east.