Bečov nad Teplou

A little town in the Teplá valley whose castle-and-chateau complex guards the reliquary of St Maurus — after the crown jewels, the country's most precious goldsmith's work, hidden under a chapel floor until 1985.

Bečov stacks a Gothic castle from around 1300 and a baroque chateau on one cliff over the Teplá, and inside them sits a genuine sensation: the Romanesque reliquary of St Maurus, ranked second only to the crown jewels among the country’s treasures. The last noble owner buried it under the floor of the castle chapel while fleeing in 1945, and it stayed there until criminal investigators dug it up in 1985 — a story the modern exposition in the Pluhovský palace tells alongside the gleaming object itself.

For hikers crossing the Slavkovský les the town is the natural anchor: a rail station on the scenic Karlovy Vary–Mariánské Lázně line, pubs and shops on the sloping square, and marked trails leaving along the river in both directions.