History of the Spa in Dolný Smokovec

The town of Vysoké Tatry, specifically the local part Dolný Smokovec, has a rich spa history, which is also reflected in the fact that it is a settlement with several older spa hotels. It is a treatment settlement specializing in childhood tuberculosis (bone and pulmonary). The initiative for its founding in 1881 came from Kežmarok teacher Jozef Bohuš, who attempted to build an affordable student tourist home near Starý Smokovec. A lack of capital thwarted his efforts. The unfinished building was taken over, and additional land purchased, by the Kežmarok Banking Joint-Stock Company, which transformed the settlement into a resort for the Hungarian aristocracy. The earliest construction period is characterized by half-timbered noble summer residences.

The first larger hotel (today’s Vila Kollár) was built in 1889. All these buildings, together with the wooden chapel from 1890, were designed by the architect Gedeon Majunke from Spišská Sobota. During World War I, a military sanatorium was located here, and since then the settlement has remained in the service of healthcare. The buildings vacated by the army were occupied by children with tuberculosis. In 1931, based on designs by architect J. Marek, a modern sanatorium with internal medicine and surgical pavilions was built, which remains the central building of the complex to this day. The housing estate Pod Lesom also belongs to Dolný Smokovec. After 2005, however, the spa and treatment character began to decline, and today leisure recreation, hiking, and winter sports are coming to the forefront.

Gedeon Majunke

For Dolný Smokovec, he designed half-timbered and log buildings. In a style combining Neoclassicism with Neo-Renaissance and Art Nouveau, he designed administrative and school buildings, villas, and family houses for the towns of the Spiš region. He restored several local manor houses, authored a number of tombstones in Spiš cemeteries, and gardens and parks were created according to his designs. In his hometown he also held the traditional position of commander of the voluntary fire brigade, but he focused more on its modernization. He cared greatly about introducing electric power in Spišská Sobota, and thanks to him one of the first steam sawmills in the country operated there. However, he devoted the greatest part of his life’s energy to the High Tatras, where extensive construction began after the opening of the Košice–Bohumín railway. He applied knowledge gained from Alpine tourist resorts to the design of holiday resorts, mountain huts, spa, social and hospitality facilities, as well as romantically styled churches. He always started from the specific character of the environment, integrating buildings into it sensitively and unobtrusively. He preferred natural materials resistant to possible climatic influences. Only in this way could he embark on the construction of Téry’s Hut.