Żegiestów-Zdrój spa: the Anna pump room and the Spa House

Żegiestów-Zdrój is a small spa in the narrow Poprad valley in the Beskid Sądecki, a kilometre and a half from the village of Żegiestów and a few kilometres from Muszyna. Its springs were discovered in 1846 by Ignacy Medwecki from Muszyna, who named the main one after his wife – Anna. As early as 1847 the Kraków professor Karl Friedrich Mohr rated the local waters among the strongest ferruginous carbonated waters in Europe; the first wooden spa buildings went up in 1857, and the Tarnów – Muszyna railway, opened in 1876, brought guests from all over Galicia. In 1924 Żegiestów was recognised as a spa of public utility. After decades of decline – the pump room closed in 2003 and the Spa House in 2002 – the resort is being revived by the Cechini family: in 2015 they bought the historic buildings, in 2022 they reopened the restored Anna pump room, and on 1 May 2025 the restored Spa House.

Mineral waters and natural resources

According to the spa statute there are four medicinal water intakes: the Anna spring and the Żegiestów II, Zofia II and Andrzej II boreholes. Anna is a naturally carbonated hydrogencarbonate-calcium-magnesium water with iron: mineralisation about 2.6 g per litre, carbon dioxide 2.9 g per litre, temperature at the outflow about 8 °C. The spa advises drinking it in small amounts, 100–200 ml two or three times a day between meals, and consulting a specialist; the water supports digestion in hyperacidity and reflux and supplies calcium and magnesium. Historically Anna combines three neighbouring outflows – Anna, Maria and Antonina – which were joined into one intake in 1868 on the advice of Professor Adolf Aleksandrowicz. Zofia 2, from a borehole in the Wiktor sanatorium, is a much stronger hydrogencarbonate-sodium-magnesium-calcium water (5.1 g per litre, 11 °C); it is drunk, inhaled and used for baths only on medical prescription and for no longer than a month.

The Anna pump room and the Spa House

The Anna pump room stands in a gorge below Mount Czerszla, about 350 m from the Spa House. The present building dates from 1945, on the site of the 1877 pump room; the 2022 restoration replaced the roof and renewed the stone walls and the mosaic basin of the spring, visible in the middle of the hall. Next to it is the Zdrój Anna drinking tap.

The modernist Spa House (Dom Zdrojowy) was built in 1925–1929 to a design by Professor Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz and has been a listed monument of the Małopolska region since 2013. It again houses a treatment department, a pool and a wellness area. The second large facility is the modernist Wiktor sanatorium of the 1930s at Łopata Polska, 4 km from the centre, with a hydromassage pool, a salt grotto and its own Zofia spring.

What is treated

The spa statute sets three main treatment profiles: digestive diseases, rheumatic diseases, and kidney and urinary tract diseases; the spa development plan adopted by the municipality adds obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis and diseases of the upper and lower airways. The main procedures at the Spa House are balneotherapy (baths in Anna mineral water, brine and peat baths, peat packs), hydrotherapy (pearl bath, Scottish shower), local cryotherapy and a cryochamber, physiotherapy and massage. Wiktor adds underwater massage, pool exercises, ultrasonic inhalations of mineral water, the salt grotto and a drinking cure with Zofia water. A course is prescribed by a doctor.

Pool and treatments for visitors

The Spa House price list also applies to guests from outside: an hour in the pool costs 35 zł, a 3-hour package of pool, salt grotto, saunas and water bed 60 zł, a bath in Anna water, a brine or a peat bath 60 zł each (cheaper in packages of 5 or 10), a peat pack 50 zł, and a doctor's consultation for visitors without a package 100 zł.

Practical information

The train is the easiest option: the Żegiestów-Zdrój halt is on the Nowy Sącz – Muszyna – Krynica-Zdrój line, where normal service resumed on 21 July 2026; the Spa House is about 15 minutes' walk away. There are no direct long-distance buses, and the nearest taxi rank is in Muszyna. By car, enter a specific address in the satnav, as the village is spread along the valley. According to OpenStreetMap, the Anna pump room is open daily 9:00–16:00; an hour is enough for a walk and a tasting.

Nearby: trails, peaks, sights

The Żegiestów – Bacówka PTTK pod Wierchomlą trail starts by the pump room, and another leads to Żegiestów – Szczawnik. Across the Poprad, on the Slovak side, runs the Kotník, transmitter – Sulínka, mineral spring trail – another place to taste carbonated spring water.

Official website: domzdrojowy.cechini.pl

Photos: Mach240390, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Krzysztof Płowiec, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Cechini, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Rafał M. Socha (Azymut), CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.