29 July, 2017
06 August

Piestany

Photo: www.piestany.sk

The world known spa town of Piestany is famous for the medicinal geothermal water and sulfuric mud with extraordinary therapeutic effects on inflammatory disorders. Besides health and relaxation, the town offers its guests a rich cultural life and plenty f opportunities for sports.

Good traffic accessibility of the town of Piestany (29,890 inhabitants), because of its position at the junction of international traffic routes, unique medical mud, rich cultural life as well as the Sĺňava water reservoir form excellent conditions for the development of tourism.

The town of Piestany has many visitors all year long, as there are various important events held, such as the Piestany Music Festival, Organ Days, Country Lodenica, Hodokvas Multimedia Festival, "Cena Slovenska" automobile race or the international rowing regatta "O pohar SNP".

There are many hotels, guest-houses, restaurants and cafés in the town. Art cafes with galleries are especially popular. The town has a wide range of sports facilities – tennis courts, a football stadium, an indoor ice rink, a riding center and a water skiing resort, as well as a golf course and bowling or squash centers.

The settlement of the present spa town Piestany and its surroundings goes well back to prehistoric times, which has been proven by the archaeological finding of Venus from Moravany - a sculpture of a woman carved from mammoth tusk from the Early Stone Age. At present, it is the oldest exhibit in the Treasury in the Bratislava Castle. The first written reference to Piestany (under the name Pescan) can be found in the Zobor Deed of Hungarian king Koloman I. from 1113.

The greatest expansion of the spa started after 1889, when the "Alexander Winter and Sons" company changed the spa into a business of international importance and the town of Piestany and the village of Teplice became a famous spa town.

Sanatorium houses, hotels, villas and guest houses - they are the best witnesses to the history of the town. The oldest spa building is the Napoleon Bath on the Spa Island (Kupeny ostrov). When walking on the Spa Island, you can see several historic buildings, as well as art sculptures in the Spa Park.

The island is connected to the pedestrian zone in the historic town center through the Colonnade Bridge (known also under the title "Promenade Bridge") with the statue of a man breaking his crutch - a symbol of the spa from 1894 that is part of the town coat of arms nowadays. On the edge of the Town Park, there is the Kupelna dvorana hall (the so-called Kursalon) - the seat of the Balneological Museum.