Druskininkai

In the early Middle Ages the area belonged to the Yotvingians, and a castle here was conquered and destroyed by the Teutonic Knights in 1308, leaving the area depopulated. The town's name suggests that its people once gathered salt, and the very salty water that bubbles up from its springs became its fortune. On 20 June 1794 King Stanisław August declared Druskininkai a place of healing, and in the early 19th century Ignacy Fonberger, a professor at Vilnius University, analysed the waters, found calcium, sodium, potassium, iodine, bromine, iron and magnesium, and promoted the town as a resort.

After the partitions the town passed to the Russian Empire, and in 1837 Tsar Nicholas I gave it official spa status; the first bathhouse, with 12 baths, opened in 1838. A ferry on the Nemunas eased the journey, and by the early 20th century Druskininkai was one of the most popular resorts in the region, the summer retreat of the middle classes of Vilnius, Warsaw and Moscow. The painter and composer Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis lived and worked here between 1896 and 1910.

After the First World War the town became part of Poland; the 1921 census counted 989 people, nearly a third of them Jewish. In 1939 it was briefly incorporated into Soviet Belarus, and under Nazi occupation its Jews were sent to ghettos or murdered. From 1951 it grew rapidly again as several huge sanatoriums and spa hospitals opened, and since independence wellness hotels, the water park and the Snow Arena have been added.

Čiurlionis is the town's great name. His family moved here when he was three, he lived and worked here between 1896 and 1910, and the town has his memorial museum, while a summer arts festival and a June music festival carry his name.

Druskininkai lies in Dzūkija, the most forested region of Lithuania, where gathering mushrooms and berries in the pine forests has long been part of life. Traditional wooden villages survive nearby, such as Švendubrė, a few kilometres south close to the Belarusian border. The town's past as a resort of the old Commonwealth and the Russian Empire shows in its mix of Catholic and Orthodox churches: the red-brick Scapular church in the centre and the Orthodox church of 1865, built when the spa was popular with wealthy Russians.

The Soviet period left its own heritage. Grūtas Park, founded in 2001 by a local businessman, gathers Soviet-era statues and other ideological relics of the occupation in a sculpture garden that locals nicknamed Stalin's World. In October the Poetic Fall festival brings poets to Druskininkai and Vilnius.

Druskininkai is a resort town above all: spas, sanatoriums, hotels and leisure parks are the main employers, and the year runs to the rhythm of visitors rather than seasons. Lithuania's oldest year-round spa, it treats guests with mineral water, mud and its climate, and its forests give each resident some two hectares of woodland.

Visitors arrive on weekends from Vilnius and Kaunas, for longer courses of treatment, or in winter for the ski slope. The huge sanatoriums of the Soviet era, when visitors reached 400,000 a year, have been followed by a newer generation of wellness resorts; the Snow Arena alone cost an estimated 30 million euros. Shops and supermarkets cluster near the water park and the main avenues.

The town's position matters. Highway A4 continues past it across the Belarusian border to Grodno, and the border is now closed off by a barrier completed in 2022. Poland is close too, and Polish sister towns such as Augustów reflect old links across the frontier.

Druskininkai lies in Dzūkija, buckwheat and mushroom country. Buckwheat pancakes, grikinė boba (a buckwheat cake) and boletus soup are regional dishes, and dried mushrooms season sauces and soups. Mushroom gathering in the surrounding pine forests runs from midsummer into autumn, and mushrooms are sold at roadside markets on the road towards Vilnius.

The national classics are everywhere. Cepelinai, large dumplings of grated potato stuffed with meat, curd cheese or mushrooms, are served with a sour cream sauce and bacon bits, and šaltibarščiai, a pink cold soup of beetroot and kefir, is the summer staple. Šakotis, the spit-baked "tree cake", appears at celebrations, and kibinai, the Karaim pastries associated with Trakai, are sold widely.

Mineral water is what the town is famous for: strongly salty water from the springs and boreholes, drunk for its supposed health benefits since the late 18th century, when it was first used to treat asthma and other ailments. Lithuanian cuisine also leans on rye, barley, beets and dairy products, and soups are served very often. Restaurants and cafés cluster around the spa centre and the water park.