PAVEL Knara, the hotel doctor, is a wiry, manic sexagenarian and a walking advert for his treatments. After 27 years at the Nove Lazne, he retains an engaging passion for his mineral waters, gas and mud.

"All three make a spa," he explains briskly, then proceeds to damn rival spa regions with faint praise. "Budapest has hot springs," he concedes, "but they're not carbonated and are sulphurous, not ideal for blood circulation." Bavaria, he acknowledges, does have mineral waters and Slovakia has mud - "but not CO2 gas."

I had travelled to Marianske Lazne, in the West Bohemia hills of the Czech Republic, to see where the real spa story began before it was hijacked by country hotels offering pamplemousse facials. The town sprang up two centuries ago, when the first bath house opened. The region's 43 mineral springs, natural gas from a volcanic spring and mud rich in iron sulphate put the town on the map, bringing the great and the gout-ridden to Bohemia.

In his surgery, Pavel checks my breathing, temperature, pulse and blood pressure. He rotates my head, jabs my stomach and wrenches my shoulders back, then jerks my left leg upwards and outwards. Unsurprisingly, my knee cracks. Arthritis, he confidently predicts. "Do you play sports with your left leg?" "No, my right." "Hmmmmm, very interesting."

Unperturbed, he pencils me in for gas injections in the left knee, peat baths for my stiff back (is it?), hydrotherapy, mineral water baths and massage.

While still standing, I explored. Marianske Lazne is tiny, huddled into the head of a valley 630m (2,000ft) above sea level. Forests of birch and beech fir carpet the hills to the valley floor, backing on to elegant houses. A short walk through the central park took me to the colonnade, a beautiful sweep of wrought iron and glass where you take the waters - sulphur, calcium or magnesium flavour.

Strauss, Kafka, Goethe, Chopin, Kipling and Ibsen all visited and, by the mid-19th century, Lazne was one of Europe's cultural capitals. Mark Twain, who visited in 1891, described the town as "the most charming on the Continent, as pretty as can be wished". Undisturbed by war and occupation, most buildings date back 150 years and many properties are being restored in yellow and white, the town's original colours. "The town is coming back to its biggest glory for 100 years," says Pavel.

Treatments are between 7am-2pm and the days settled into a pattern: up at 6.30am, treatments, breakfast, walk, sleep, lunch, treatments, sleep, walk, dinner, concert and bed at 10pm. My first treatment, a mineral bath, was a soft introduction. The carbonated water covers your body in millions of bubbles. Keep perfectly still and you literally feel a shiver up your spine as the bubbles rise, aiding blood circulation. After a 40-minute bath, I lie on a bed, cocooned in blankets, for another ten minutes.

The next day, thick steaming mud was wrapped around my (left) knee for 20 minutes before showering, dozing, having a massage, another shower and a dip in a 28C Roman bath fenced in by marble pillars.

After a few days, I was so much more aware of my posture, neck movements, had obviously smoother skin and regular breathing. The evening salads of sweetcorn, chopped tomatoes and cucumber grated initially and the meals were plain - beef and boiled potatoes, lean hamburger and rice followed by fruit. You can go a la carte but Pavel wouldn't have approved. "Observe the rules of prescribed diet," he says. "You may possibly cheat the doctor - but not your body."

Getting there: Steve Keenan travelled with Erna Low Holidays (020-7594 0290, www.bodyandsoulholidays.com). A seven-night stay at the Nove Lazne, including flights to Prague, transfers, full board and a Classic Spa programme starts at £710pp, based on two sharing.

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