Druskininkai Mineral Resort

Discovered in 1794 by a local priest who first identified their remarkable properties, the mineral waters of Druskininkai were analyzed in the early 19th century by a professor at the University of Vilnius, who revealed their richness in calcium, sodium, potassium, iodine, bromine, iron and magnesium. The first spa establishment opened in 1838 under the patronage of Tsar Nicholas I, who saw in this small Lithuanian town a credible counterpart to the great German spa resorts.

Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, Druskininkai became a fashionable gathering place for Polish, Russian and Lithuanian elites — painter and composer M. K. Čiurlionis spent time here. The Soviet era later built vast sanatoriums around the existing springs, many of which have since been redeveloped, from the 1990s onward, into modern spa complexes still drawing on the sodium-calcium chloride waters characteristic of the region.