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- City and Spa Piestany
City and Spa Piestany
Piešťany
Piestany
The settlement of the present spa town Piešťany and its surroundings (territories of the present villages Banka, Moravany nad Váhom, Ratnovce) reaches as far as to the late primeval age, when the hunters of mammoths settled in the vicinity of hot thermal springs. This was also confirmed by an archaeological finding of The Venus from Moravany – the sculpture of a woman carved from a mammoth tusk from the younger period of the Older Stone Age.
The first written reference about Piešťany (under the name Pescan) can be found in the Zobor script of the Hungarian King Koloman Ist from 1113..
In the years 1299 and 1301–1321, Piešťany was a part of the masterdom of Matúš Čák Trenciansky (Mathias Czaky from Trenčín), the Master of the Váh River and the Tatra Mountains. After his death, a part of his property was seized by King Karol Robert from Anjou. Piešťany was a royal property too and a part of the castle masterdom Tematín. In 1348, King Ľudovít Ist gave the castle and the masterdom Tematín (Piešťany with it too) to Master Mikulas Kont as a present. After the demise of this house, Alexej Thurzo gained it from King Ľudovit IInd. The administrative activity of this little town in 16th century has been documented by the first written letter in Slovak language from 1564 which was written by the Piešťany reeve Valo Kudláš to the Trnava consistor.
The nicest written reminder of the Piešťany thermal waters, the spa and the life in it was left by Adam Trajan from Benešov in his panegyric poem „The Healing Piešťany Spa“ from 1642.
In the year 1720, the sovereign Karol VIth gave the estate Hlohovec (again, with Piešťany) to Jan Leopold Erdödy as a present. The little town Piešťany had belonged to the Erdödys as late as 1848, and the spa as late as 1940. At the beginning of 19th century (about the year 1820–1822), Jozef Erdödy had the first brick spa buildings built in Classicistic style; they were built and then rebuilt in the course of the 19th century. The earl Erdödy founded the Spa Park as well.
In the 19th century the first specialist began working in the spa. It was the balneologist, Frantisek Ernest Scherer MD, author of the book „About the Healing Springs and the Spas in Hungary“ (Leipzig, Germany 1837), the later founder of the Military Spa Institute in Piešťany (1863).
After 1889, the largest developments of the spa began when it was rented from the family Erdödy by the family Winter. In the period 1889–1940, the firm Alexander Winter and Sons changed the spa to an enterprise of international importance and the little town Piešťany and the village Teplice to a well-known spa town. At the end of the 19th century, in 1894, the symbol of the spa – the Crutch-breaker, the emblem of the City of Piešťany today as well – rose.
In 1945, with the end of the World War II, Piešťany was assigned the statute of a town. Piešťany built an artificial water reservoir Sĺňava in 1956–1959 which facilitated the development of tourism, sporting and recreation activities in the surroundings. The Interhotel Magnolia in 1968 and spa complex „Balnea“ on the Spa Island in 1965 –1980 were built. The town part of Piešťany is connected with the Spa Island by two bridges. For pedestrians, there is architecturally interesting Colonnade Bridge; in the south, there is the Krajinský (Country) bridge which is interesting from a technical point of view and serves for road transportation.
Many significant celebrities from the world of art have lived and worked in Piešťany. Among them were the poet Ivan Krasko, the writer and dramatist Ivan Stodola, the writer Gejza Vamos, the graphic artist and painter Aurel Kajlich. In 1932–1937, Janko Alexy had founded here the painters´ colony and had allured here such masters of paint brush as Martin Benka, Miloš A. Bazovský, Zolo Palugyay, Jozef Kollár, Jozef Ilečko and many others. Their lasting station had found here two sculptors too – Valér Vavro and Ladislav L. Pollák. The valuable art heritage remains the work of the painter Ctibor Krčmár, too. Emil Belluš enriched the town with three objects and mainly the Colonnade Bridge belongs to the acmes of the Functionalist architecture. The Emperor František Jozef with his wife Elisabeth, the popular Sisi, the Bulgarian Czar Ferdinand Ist, the German Emperor Wilhelm IInd, the Maharajas from India and Malaysia, the presidents and diplomats from the various states of the world belong among the excellent visitors of Piešťany. Among the artists, the world known painter and creator of posters, Alfonz Mucha, the Russian singer Fjodor Šaljapin, the tenorist Richard Tauber and a wide variety of writers, poets, dramatists, actors and composers can be ranged in this group. The Czech botanist, Univ. Prof. Karel Domin and the author of the book Piešťany Flora (published in 1931), stayed here for long periods of time.
Surroundings
- Apponyi museum
- Mining Museum Gelnica
- Chateau Markusovce
- Chateaux Budimir - Exposition of Historical Timepieces
- Zupcany - Exposition The Literary Traditions of East - Slovakia
- Martovce - Exposition of Folk Architecture and Dwelling
- The Open-Air Museum Humenne - Exposition of the Folk architekture and living
- Lednica
- Monastry at Hronsky Benadik
Accommodation
