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.

Historians have established that sometime between the 11th and 12th centuries a monastery existed in " Old Piestany". The original site can be seen today in the garden of one of the houses on Defusanska Street. The name Piestany is derived from the latin "paskan" (sand). The town was so called by the earliest settlers probably because their settlements were built on the sand deposited by the overflowing waters of the Vah River.

Fair style 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 Marcucs Aurelius Antoninus. 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.


Winter family legacy
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, and in 1912 the facility's largest and most luxurious hotel, the Thermia Palace, was completed.
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.