SK, Piestany – The Home of Health and Beauty VI

Last week, we visited Thermia Hotel, an Art Noveau structure. There we enjoyed richly decorated interior including a painting by Alfons Mucha. Today we move on. This time we visit Irma, a luxurious spa situated just above heling springs. Moreover, there is a unique mud field. The hotel offers many types of treatments.

If you were interested in trying the healing effects of the famous PIestany mud, visit a reception desk at a spa house. There book a date. However, beware that the dressing room, a pool filled with healing thermal water, and a mud field split by gender. You can enter the pool only without swimsuit but you can take a pinafore. The pool is split into two sections by a wall made of stained glass. Above you hangs amazing dome-style roof. Sulphur mud rests on the bottom of the pool. You can yourself with it. However, the smell remains on your skin for a long time. This is not to discourage you from doing it. Quite the opposite. 

Just before Irma, there is a square with a fountain in the middle. On the left, there is a line of Napoleon buildings built in the classicist style. There are many of the healing pools, therapeutical rooms and a salt chamber. In the back, there is cafe, then a spa sanatorium. At the corner, there is a mineral spring for guests' drinking treatment. There are several drinkable water springs on the island. You just need to wait once you filled your cup until water cools down a bit

Then we paid our attention to a water tower.  At the tower, there is the Adam Trajan spring with a dome atop. Behind the dome, there are the so called maturing pools. Mud, peloids from the Vah River , is enriched with healing sulfuric water. All of this matures for about a year. Then it is used to treat different diseases. While examining various "backgrounds" of the spa, we discovered stone walls built in 1828, service facilities to adjust thermal water, and other engineering facilities.

Then we followed trails along one of the Vah's branches. Blossoming meadows and silence composed an idylic atmosphere. We observed spa and accommodation facilities, a modern car park, renovated road or a bike trail linking the upper part of the island with the lower part. On the end, there is a golf course and a community center. On our way back to the Colonnade bridge we walked through poplar alley, passed by a musical summer house and a medical sidewalk, we experienced the latter.

Seamlessly we reached a water lilly pond with some fish swimming in it. Further away, bird were singing which ultimately lured us in a bird minizoo. Apart from these royal animals, there were many types of pheasants and doves. According to us, the Lazensky island is one of the most interesting and original spa compounds in Europe. It is diverse beyond comparison.

At the end, we have a tip for you. It will spare you some time. Board Piestansky express – a blue road train which operates during the season. The tickets costs next to nothing but buys you a 40-minute ride on the Lazensky Island and also partly in the historic center of Piestany.

Next week we finish our tour of this spa gem. It will me an unusual conclusion - on the water.

GPS: 48°35'13.1"N 17°50'31.6"E

Text and photos: Oskár Mažgút