BATH SPA

Nestling in the lower region of the Vah River in western Slovakia is the world-famous spa town of Piestany. The town's wonderful natural riches include hot springs of healing thermal waters, which reach temperatures as high as 70 degrees Celsius, and enormous deposits of curative sulphur mud. Since time immemorial, the curative effects of these thermal springs and the sulphur-bearing mud have attracted people from far and wide, especially those suffering from rheumatic problems.

This bath & spa resort is situated only 85 kilometers far from the international airport in Bratislava. You can get there by car by highway or use the train or bus connection.

History:

The Spa has a fair style history, which claims that the healing powers of the waters were discovered when a big, beautiful and lame peacock dragged itself to the banks of the river below the village of Banka and was miraculously cured. Another tale says that the medical effects of the local waters were discovered by the legions of ancient Rome on their northward marches during the region of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antonius. The presence of the soldiers has been verified from specific inscriptions on rocks on the grounds of Trencin castle, situated a little to the north. It was said that the Romans dug hollows in areas close to the Vah, whereupon hot water started to flow, the soldiers then immersed themselves in the water, and discovered that it had an almost immediate curative effect. Word then speared, and so began this truly magnificent spa complex.

The beginnings of progressive rational changes in methods of Piestany´s curative healing cure meant the arrival of MUDr. Frantisek E. Scherer, pioneer of modern balneal therapy, who worked in Piestany spa from 1829 to 1837. He decided for an individual approach for the prescription of curative cures based on the advance defined diagnosis and based on the advanced state of disease phase of the patient.

It was in 1889 that Alexander Winter and his sons obtained a contract to take over the spa. The Jewish family wanted to put Piestany on the map as one of the world's foremost spa. At the beginning of 20th century the spa hotel Thermia Palace was created along with the building of balneal therapy Irma (1912), furthermore spa hotel Pro Patria (1916) and in the thirties in a functional style the hotel Excelsior (today’s Jalta). Father Alexander and later his sons, especially Ludovit and Imrich served and managed the development of cultural and social life in Piestany and for the first time they struggled and attempted to use the common joint interest and concern - of the town as well as the spa. They laid the foundations of the Balneology museum, they invited to Piestany young talented doctors and physicians.

One of the first guests at this fine complex was the Bulgarian Czar, Ferdinand I., who stated that such a hotel could not be found elsewhere in all of Europe. In 1917, three monarchs- Austrian Emperor Charles, German Emperor Wilhelm II. And the Bulgarian Czar, Ferdinand I.- meet here to discuss the further course of the world war. At the beginning of WWII. in 1939, the Winter family was forced to sell all their investments in Piestany to a German consortium. Ludovit winter then moved to Bratislava, where he was subsequently rounded up by the Nazis and sent to the Terezin concentration camp north of Prague. He was lucky to survive, and after the war returned as an old and broken man in Piestany.

• rheumatoid arthritidis
  
• spondylitis ankylosans

Degenerative disorders of locomotion apparatus

• arthrosis
• entheropathis
• artropathis within neurophatis

• gout
• ochronosis
• chondrocalcinosis within diabetes mellitus
• ostherophorosis

• enthesopatis
• thendinitis
• thenosynosis
• bursitis
• pseudoradicular syndrom

• lumboischial
• cervico-brachial and cervico-cranial syndrom
• states after the inflammatory disease CNS and the peripheral nervous system
• central and peripheral paralysis
• neurophatis at metabolism disorders

• Post-accident and post-operation states of the locomotive apparatus, Rheumatoid arthritis and its variations, Disseminated sclerosis and other de-myelinic diseases in a benign state

All above mentioned diseases have been treating with treatments by the mineral waters temperature ranging from 35°C to 38°C and healing sulphuric mud, the temperature of the applied mud varies from 40°C to 46°C.

Contact:
Slovenske liecebne kupele Piestany, a.s., Winterova 29, 921 29 Piestany
Tel: +421 33 775 77 33, Fax: +421 33 762 77 39, E-mail: reservations@healthspa.sk, www.kupelepiestany.sk, www.piestany-spa.sk