Mateczny’s Centre of Natural Medicine

It was by sheer coincidence that a Podgórze building contractor, the engineer Antoni Mateczny (1858-1934), became one of the pioneers of Polish balneology. By a stroke of luck, while working on an intake of potable water next to the house he was building for himself, he found mineral springs containing brine and sulphur at a depth of over 30 m (100 ft). As soon as the water proved to have medical properties, Mateczny applied for a permit to open baths. By 1905 his establishment was ready to admit patients. One of the first of these was Archduke Charles Stephen of Austria who hailed from Żywiec.

The buildings of Mateczny’s establishment had faces of unadorned brick in various colours: in the so-called Carlsbad style. Moreover, some features known from Carlsbad, a spa which was popular all over Europe at that time, were also used inside the buildings. The entire complex was situated in a stylish park. During the second world war, the Germans destroyed the fittings as well as the surroundings of the spa, opening a synthetic rubber production plant on the premises. After the war, the site resumed its role as a spa. Today it is privately owned, and the curative properties of the local waters are helpful in the treatment of disorders of the motor system, the nervous system, and the digestive tract. There is also an exclusive SPA centre on the site.

The bottling facility for the “Krakowianka” mineral water is also situated on the premises. This water is praised not only for its very favourable proportions of magnesium and calcium, but also for the lack of impurities. Its deposits are 10,000 years old and come from great depths, isolated by impermeable layers of loam.