Druskininkai is named after salt, one of the most precious and indispensable goods of antiquity. As early as the 17th century, the local population learned about the healing powers of the local salt water.
The official date of foundation of the Druskininkai spa is 20 June 1794, when the Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland, Stanislaw August Poniatowski, by his decree, granted the area the status of a healing place. The mineral water has been tested and its therapeutic properties scientifically confirmed. New perspectives opened up for Druskininkai.
In 1837, the project to build the resort was approved by the Russian Emperor Nicholas I. A loan of 25 000 silver roubles was granted for the project. The marshes were drained and replaced by white sand alleys. The first health centres are built. Tennis courts and bowling alleys are built. A theatre opened in the summer. One of the first photographic salons in Lithuania opened…
At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, Druskininkai was a fashionable summer holiday destination. In terms of popularity in the Russian Empire, Druskininkai was surpassed only by resorts in the Crimea and the Caucasus. The dignitaries and artists of St. Petersburg, Warsaw, Grodno and Vilnius spent their summers in Druskininkai.
In the interwar period, Druskininkai began to promote the principles of a healthy lifestyle. In the park of the talented healer Eugenia Levitka, natural factors of nature were used for therapy: sunlight, air temperature, water power.
E. After the Second World War, the work of E. Levicka was continued by Karolis Dineika, a Lithuanian sports pioneer, who revived the park to a second life: he developed and supplemented the park with new wellness methods, created a pavilion for cascades and aero-ionotherapy, and the “Saulės” hiking and bicycle path.
When Druskininkai became a USSR resort of union importance, the sanatoriums began to work all year round. Many large reinforced concrete structures were built: the Eglė, Lietuvos, Vilniaus, Nemunas and other sanatoriums, the Physiotherapy Spa (now the Aqua Park).
In the early 1990s, following the interruption of tourist flows from the former USSR, Druskininkai experienced a crisis. In 2000, the Druskininkai municipality started to revitalise the resort by encouraging and initiating the creation of tourist attraction centres and providing incentives for business development. In 2003, the Druskininkai Spa opened after reconstruction, and Newsweek magazine ranked Druskininkai among the top ten balneology resorts in Europe.
Over the past decade, the town’s infrastructure has been renovated, hotels and sanatoriums have been privatised and renovated. In 2006, the Aqua Park was opened, in 2011 the Snow Arena indoor winter entertainment complex was opened, and in the same year a new bridge over the Nemunas was built. In 2012, the Old Spa Park and the Musical Fountain opened after reconstruction. In 2015, an eco-friendly cable car connected both sides of the Nemunas. Between 2000 and 2015, more than EUR 300 million of municipal budget and various funds were invested in the renovation of public facilities alone. Compared to 2000 (39,000), the number of tourist arrivals has increased 8.5 times (340,000 in 2018).