Alive with Edwardian promenaders in dark wool and pale summer dress, this richly tinted color postcard captures the celebrated Mühlbrunnkai colonnaded promenade and the Kreuzgasse of Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary) in its imperial heyday — the Mill Spring Colonnade's grand arcaded façade presiding over a Tepla riverside thronged with the European aristocracy and bourgeoisie who traveled from across the continent to take the mineral waters. Sent in 1914 (postmarked with a Vienna machine cancel dated 25.VI.14), the card was addressed to a woman named Helene at Wieselbburg [Wieselburg], Lower Austria. The sender filled every inch of the reverse with urgent, tightly written German script. The franking is a 5-Heller green Franz Joseph Austro-Hungarian stamp. Karlsbad was at the absolute zenith of its fame when this card was sent — within months, World War I would empty the grand hotels and shutter the spa season that had defined Central European leisure culture for two centuries.