Kudowa-Zdrój

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Kudowa-Zdrój, Poland

Region	N/A
Population	10,274
Area	33.99 km²
Coordinates	50°27′ N 16°15′ E
Elevation	400 m AMSL
Founded	1354
Website	www.kudowa.pl

Kudowa-Zdrój (German: Bad Kudowa, Czech: Chudoba) is a town situated at the bottom of the Stołowe Mountains in the southwestern part of Poland, about 400 m above the sea level. It has a population of about 11000 people. It is located right at the Polish-Czech border, just across from the Czech town of Nachod, and some 50 km west of Kłodzko.

It is a spa town where heart and circulation system diseases are cured. In the centre of the town there is a park with exotic plants and mineral waters pump room. Due to its useful location the town is a wonderful place to start walking or bike and car trips here. Among numerous attractions of the region you cannot forget The Chapel of Skulls and The Moving Crib in Czermna, The Basilica in Wambierzyce, The Bear Cave in Kletno or the heritage park in Pstrążna. It is only 1 kilometre from the centre of the town to the Czech border and about 140 kilometres to Praha, the capital of the Czech Republic that makes it possible to organize a trip to this beautiful city.

[edit] History

Kudowa-Zdrój is one of the oldest spa resorts in Poland and Europe. It is first mentioned in a document by Henry the Older, son of the Hussite Czech king George of Podebrady. The original name of the village was Lipolitov, but in the mid-XVI century it was changed to Chudoba, later on Kudoba, Bad Kudowa and in 1945 to Kudowa-Zdrój. The oldest part of Kudowa is Czermna, dating back to XVI century. The first record of a mineral waters in the area comes from 1580 from the chronicles of Louis of Nachod, under the name Cermenske Lazne. In 1625 (or, as some sourses say, as early as 1621), G. Aelurius, a protestant monk in his work "Glaciografia" writes about the great taste of the mineral waters from Kudowa, how healthy they were and that they were used for winemaking.