Visit a place where springs rich in mineral salts bubble up, stroll over inland dunes covered with pine forest, breathe air full of negative (free) ions, and much more… About Druskininkai and its surroundings.
Today Druskininkai is described as an international year-round balneological, mud, mineral water and climate therapy resort. According to historical sources, the local people were the first to speak of the healing springs. They said that wading in the springs by the Nemunas healed wounds on the legs. The good news spread quickly. Around 1790 King Stanislaw August Poniatowski of Poland and Lithuania, who had visited Druskininkai earlier, ordered his court physician to study the healing properties of the mineral water of Druskininkai. Four years later he declared Druskininkai a spa town.
Yet the true heyday of Druskininkai came after Professor I. Fonberg of Vilnius University published, in 1835, his research on the chemical composition of the mineral water of the Druskininkai springs. By the end of the 19th century the resort was famous even beyond the borders of the Russian Empire.
In 2003 “Newsweek" magazine published a list of the ten best resorts worth travelling to. Wondering what the list has to do with Druskininkai? Druskininkai was named the best balneological resort in Europe!
Places to visit in Druskininkai:
* Snow Arena – the first year-round winter entertainment complex in the Baltic states. Three ski slopes for alpine skiing and snowboarding have been built on an area of 8 hectares. www.snowarena.ltHow to get there: www.marsturai.info/druskininkai or info.druskininkai.lt/tvarkarasciai
* Druskininkai Water Park “Aqua Park" – a 23,000 sq. m world of entertainment and relaxation offering water attractions, exciting bowling and relaxing massages in spa centres. Visitors enjoy a tower with 6 open and indoor slides and a pool area under an impressive dome. Thrill-seekers who have tried the longest slide, a full 212 metres, and wrestled with the waves in the wave pool and the rapid river, can regain their strength in the relaxation area, massage baths or water cascades, or immerse themselves in the pleasures of the sauna area.
* When visiting Druskininkai, you must try climbing in the trees with your friends at “UNO parks". No age or fitness limits, safe and impressive!
* Grūtas Park was officially opened in 2001. It displays many ideologised monuments and objects from the Soviet era. Grūtas Park covers 20 ha and exhibits 86 works by 46 authors. It is interesting for anyone still nostalgic for Soviet times.
* Druskininkai Park. Besides beautiful nature and clean air, you will see a mineral water pump room and sculptures. Do not forget a water bottle, and walk to the Nemunas, where a spring called the “Spring of Beauty" gushes from a stone bas-relief. The water is very salty and not advisable to drink, but it is recommended to wash your face with it – for the sake of beauty.
* The Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis Memorial Museum, dedicated to the composer, painter, choir conductor and cultural figure. Founded in 1963.
* Church of Our Lady of the Scapular in Druskininkai. The present neo-Gothic church was built in 1912–1931 to a design by the architect Stefan Szyller.
* Ratnyčia Church of St Bartholomew the Apostle, which stands in the south-eastern part of Druskininkai, on the right bank of the Ratnyčia (a right tributary of the Nemunas). The present brick church, with neo-Gothic features, was built by Father Pranas Bernotas in 1905–1910.
* The “Girios aidas" museum (Echo of the Forest) was founded in 1971 on the initiative of the forester A. Valavičius. In the museum you can see not only stuffed animals and birds, but also exhibitions of photographs of the country’s landscapes and fauna and works by Lithuanian folk artists. If you take the forest path around the museum, you will see some rare Lithuanian tree species, large wooden sculptures, roadside poles and other decorative wood carvings. In the museum yard are old horizontal and vertical hives from traditional tree-hollow beekeeping.
* A. Česnulis Sculpture and Recreation Park. The wood carvings and sculptures at the homestead of one of the best sculptors of Dzūkija were gathered over 30 years of his work. Visitors are pleasantly surprised by the 4-storey windmill built by the owner of the homestead and the park beside it. All the wooden works are different, lively and unique!
