History of the spas in Dolný Smokovec

The town of Vysoké Tatry, the local part of Dolný Smokovec has a rich spa history, and the fact that it is a settlement with several older spa hotels is related to this. It is a treatment settlement specializing in children's tuberculosis (bone and lung). The impetus for its foundation was given in 1881 by the Kežmar teacher Jozef Bohuš, who tried to build an affordable student tourist home near Starý Smokovec. Lack of capital thwarted his efforts. The unfinished building was taken over and other plots were bought by the Kežmarská banková participation company, which turned the settlement into a resort for the Hungarian aristocracy. The oldest period of construction is characterized by half-timbered aristocratic summer houses.

The first larger hotel (now Vila Kollár) was built in 1889. All of these buildings with a wooden chapel from 1890 were designed by the architect Gedeon Majunke from Spišskosobot. During the First World War, there was a military hospital here, since then the settlement has remained in the service of the health service. Tuberculosis children occupied the buildings emptied by the army. According to the projects of the architect J. Marek, a modern hospital with an internal and surgical pavilion was built in 1931, which is still the central object of the complex. The Pod Lesom housing estate also belongs to Dolný Smokovec. After 2005, however, the spa-therapeutic nature began to decline, and today leisure recreation, hiking, and winter sports come to the fore.

Gedeon Majunke

He designed half-timbered and log buildings for Dolný Smokovec. In the style of neoclassicism combined with neo-renaissance and secession, he designed administrative and school buildings, villas and family houses for the cities of Spiš. He restored some of the local mansions, he is the author of several tombstones in the Spiš cemeteries, gardens and parks were created according to his designs. Although he also held the traditional position of commander of the volunteer fire department in his hometown, he was more focused on its modernization. It was very important to him that electricity be introduced in Spišská Sobota, thanks to him one of the first steam sawmills in our country worked here. However, he devoted most of his life energy to the High Tatras, where extensive construction began after the opening of the Košice-Bohumín railway. He applied his knowledge from alpine tourist centers in the design of resorts, cottages, spas, social and hospitality facilities, and romantic churches. He always started from a specific environment, he composed buildings into it in a considerate, unobtrusive way. He preferred natural materials resistant to possible climatic influences. That was the only way he could start building Téry's cottage.