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Piešťany (; , , , ) is a town in Slovakia. It is located in the western part of the country within the Trnava Region and is the seat of its own district. It is the biggest and best known spa town in Slovakia and has around 28,000 inhabitants.
A small female statue representing female fertility called Venus of Moravany was found in the nearby village Moravany nad Váhom. It is made of mammoth ivory and is dated to 22,800 BC. It currently resides in the Bratislava Castle museum. In another nearby village, Krakovany-Stráže, a treasure consisting of luxury items made of glass, bronze, silver, and gold was discovered in three graves from 200 to 300 AD. The surroundings of Piešťany also include the castle of Ducové.
Piešťany was first mentioned in written records in 1113 (under the name Pescan). At that time, it consisted of several smaller settlements. The medicinal springs were already popular in the Middle Ages. They were visited by the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus. The first book mentioning the Piešťany springs was De admirandis Hungariae aquis hypomnemation (About the Miraculous Waters of the Hungarian Monarchy) by Georgius Wernher, published in 1549 in Basel. In the 16th century, the Piešťany spa was also mentioned by two prominent physicians, Johann Crato de Crafheim (who served several Holy Roman Emperors) and Andrea Baccius Elpidianus (a personal surgeon of the Pope). The first monography ( Schediasma de Thermis Postheinsibus by was published in 1745. But in the 16th and 17th centuries, Piešťany also suffered from Turkish raids and anti-Habsburg uprisings.
Throughout the centuries, Piešťany was owned by several noble families; the last of them, the Erdődys, owned the area from 1720 to 1848, and the spa until 1940. The Erdődy family built the first spa buildings in 1778. They were damaged by a destructive flood in 1813. In 1820, the spa buildings were expanded and remodeled in neoclassicism and named Napoleon spa. The Erdődy family also established the Spa park in this period. In the years 1889 to 1940, the Winter family rented the spa from the Erdődys and brought it to international fame. improved spa treatment as well as accommodation and entertainment for visitors. They built several spa buildings and hotels.
The spa attracted many aristocratic visitors, including Ludwig van Beethoven. In 1917, three monarchs (Wilhelm II of German Empire, Karl I of Austria-Hungary, and Ferdinand I of Bulgaria) orchestrated their war strategy during the negotiations in the Thermia Palace hotel.
In 1945, Piešťany received the official status of a town. In 1959, the Sĺňava water reservoir was built south of the town. In the late 1960s and 1970s, more spa buildings were built. In 1973, the village of Banka, located on the left bank of the Váh river, was amalgamated with Piešťany, but it regained independence after a referendum in 1995. In 1996, the town became the seat of a district.
The 1938 World Fencing Championships were held in Piešťany.
On January 4, 1987, at the final match in the World Junior Championships of ice hockey between Canada and the Soviet Union, there was a bench-clearing brawl, now famously known as the Punch-up in Piešťany. Both teams were disqualified from the competition as a result.
On July 5, 2001, three members of the Real Irish Republican Army were arrested in Piešťany. They were lured into a trap by agents of the British Security Service MI5 who were posing as arms dealers from Iraq.
Most of the town is located on the right bank of the river. South of the town is the Sĺňava water reservoir created by a dam on the Váh river. The artificial canal Biskupický kanál and the main river branch join in the town. Another short branch of the river (Obtokové rameno) creates the Spa Island.
The hills of Považský Inovec are mostly covered with deciduous forests. These consist of oak and hornbeam in the lower elevations, and beech in the higher elevations. The Váh valley is used for agriculture. The main products are cereals, sugar beet, animal feed, and pork.
Piešťany is located north-east of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, and north-east of the local regional seat Trnava. Upstream from Piešťany on the Váh river are the towns Nové Mesto nad Váhom ( north of Piešťany) and Trenčín ( north-east); downstream is Hlohovec.
Piešťany is located on the route of the D1 motorway from Bratislava to Žilina with connections to Vienna and Brno. The main railway route from Bratislava to Žilina and Košice also goes through the town. The town has an airport, mostly used for international for spa clients (10,000 passengers in 2007). The municipality operates a local public transport system with 11 bus routes ().
The spa is located on the Spa Island between two branches of the Váh river, at the site of several with temperatures of . The water originates in a geologic fault at depth. The sulfate–carbonate water from the springs is used in pools and tubs. Sulfurous mud extracted from the bed of a side channel of the river is also used for treatment in the form of thermal mud pools with a temperature and for partial and full body packs. Spring water and mud therapy are complemented by electrotherapy, exercise, massage, medication, and diet.
The spa is operated by the company Slovenské liečebné kúpele. The company was purchased in 2002 by Danubius Hotels Group. A small share is owned by the town. Danubius Hotels Group also owns hotels in Hungary, Mariánské Lázně spa in Czech Republic and Sovata spa in Romania.
Other important employers in the town include the Slovak headquarters of the financial services company Home Credit.
is an independent certification, testing, and inspection body for conformity assessment of machinery and construction products, and consumer goods. Historically, Technický skúšobný ústav Piešťany is one of the oldest and the largest testing bodies in the Slovak Republic within testing activity.
Between 1967 and 1993, the city was the site of an annual sculpture exhibition in the Spa Park. This tradition was renewed in 2005 and 2008.
Piešťany also has several museums. The , the only one of its type in the region, focuses on archeology, history and ethnography of the region, as well as the history of Slovakia's spas in general. It was established in 1933 by the Winter family. Another small museum belonging to the Balneological Museum commemorates the life of the Slovak poet Ivan Krasko, who lived in Piešťany from 1945 to 1958. Finally, a new museum at the airport (active since 2004) exhibits a collection related to the Slovak military history from 1945 to 1992.
The House of Arts is the first postwar Slovak theatre building outside Bratislava, being a project of architect . In the first half of September, the annual International Film Festival Cinematik is held in various areas of Piešťany. It is currently the second-largest film festival in Slovakia. Cinematik
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