History of city Birzai in photos

A small historical reference

The first mention of the village of Druskininkai refers to 1563 (Lithuanian metric). The name comes from the Lithuanian word druskininkas, which is engaged in salt production, which in turn comes from the Lithuanian word «druska» («G»). The name is associated with the presence on the territory of sources solёnovatoy mineral water, and they became the basis of the XX century resort industry of the city.

Status resort of Druskininkai received in 1793, when the personal physician of the Polish King and Grand Duke of Lithuania Stanislaw August was experimentally confirmed the healing properties of mineral springs. The fame of the mineral springs purchased in the late XVII century, when a local farmer Pranas suruciai (Surauchyus) and his children became famous in the neighborhood as "healers".

In the first half of the XIX century (1835), Professor of Vilnius University Ignacy Fonberg presented to the Emperor a report on the medicinal properties of the mineral springs, and then in 1837 Druskininkai highest command of the Emperor Nicholas I had declared the city. Then began the rapid development of the resort.