Karlovy Vary (German Karlsbad or Carlsbad,”Charles's bath”), city in the northwestern Czech Republic, situated on the Ohre River. The city is a resort, long noted for healthful mineral springs which were believed to have been discovered in 1347 by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. The town was chartered as Vary in 1370, and the word Karlovy was added later to honor the emperor. Among the important occupations in the city are the processing of mineral salts, the bottling of mineral waters for export, and the manufacture of ceramic and porcelain ware and leather goods. Tourism is also important to the local economy. The repressive Carlsbad Decrees, designed to curb liberalism in Austria-Hungary and the German states, were drawn up here in 1819, after the assassination of the German dramatist and antiliberal pamphleteer August von Kotzebue by Karl Ludwig Sand, a student leader. Population (1997 estimate) 55,000.
