Lázně Darkov

Lázně Darkov in Karviná treats with a strongly mineralised iodine-bromine brine that the operator calls "Zlato z Darkova" — Darkov gold. The company states that iodine is the water's principal therapeutic element and that the water contains 25 to 45 mg of it per litre, a concentration it describes as higher than in coastal regions. Therapeutic brine baths are prepared as a full bath at 37 °C and are given daily as part of balneo-rehabilitation, alongside brine wraps. The spa dates its beginnings to 1867, when the local natural springs were recognised as curative and the first spa season opened; the operator adds that the official permit to establish a spa was granted to Baron Bees a year earlier, in 1866, and that the brine was found in 1862 during an unsuccessful trial borehole for coal.

The spa runs on two sites, the Historické Lázně Darkov and the Rehabilitační sanatorium. Bathing open to day visitors is concentrated in Svět vitality, a wellness centre on the second floor of building D of the Rehabilitační sanatorium. Its pools are a freshwater swimming pool at 31 °C, 20 m long, 11 m wide and 1.1–1.3 m deep, used both for rehabilitation and for recreational swimming; whirlpools at 36 °C; and an iodine-bromine pool at 35 °C whose composition the operator compares to a strongly mineralised sea, with a maximum recommended stay of 30 minutes. There are three saunas — infrared, Finnish and steam. Children under three are not admitted.

Indications named by the operator include conditions of the locomotor system after joint replacement and spinal surgery, neurological illness after stroke and brain or spinal injury, circulatory disease, gynaecological conditions and skin disease including psoriasis, atopic eczema and burn scars. Svět vitality is open to residents and to the public Monday to Saturday 16.00–21.00 and Sunday 8.00–21.00, with sauna disinfection on Sundays from 13.30 to 14.00; Tuesdays 20.00–21.00 are women-only and Wednesdays 19.00–20.00 are reserved for Aqua-Fit.