Uzdrowisko Nałęczów

Nałęczów lies in the Lublin region of eastern Poland, and the spa company Zakład Leczniczy “Uzdrowisko Nałęczów” S.A. is plainly larger than a single bath house: the operator lists Termy Pałacowe, Stare Łazienki, the Pawilon Angielski, Sanatorium Książę Józef, the Szpital Kardiologiczny, Sanatorium Fortunat, Jesienna Rezydencja and the Kompleks Wodny Atrium, with around eight hundred beds between them, most of them in or on the edge of the Park Zdrojowy. The site states that the company's business rests on both self-paid therapeutic stays and stays financed by the NFZ, the Polish health fund, and that it offers more than a hundred treatments in kinesitherapy, physical therapy, hydrotherapy and diagnostics. The bathing a walk-in visitor can buy is at the Kompleks Wodny Atrium, which sells hourly admission and ten-entry passes to its pool zone; at the Pijalnia Wód in the Park Zdrojowy the operator states that guests on a therapeutic stay enter on their stay card. The operator traces the resort to the end of the 18th century and states that the medicinal action of the Nałęczów waters was confirmed in 1817 by a chemical analysis by Piotr Celiński, a professor of the University of Warsaw, and that the spa was reborn in 1878 through a company founded by doctors exiled to Siberia.

Mineral water

The operator calls Nałęczów the most popular resort in Poland with medicinal water, and states that it is the iron-rich medicinal waters, for whose exploitation the company holds a concession, that keep the town's status as a spa locality. According to the site two kinds of water are drawn here, from two natural springs and one deep intake. The “Barbara” spring is described as a weakly mineralised iron-rich medicinal water: the operator states its Fe²⁺ content is above 10.0 mg/dm³, varying between 10.5 and 13.1 mg/dm³, and that it may therefore be used in treating anaemia caused by iron deficiency, and iron deficiency without anaemia in convalescents. The “Celiński” spring is likewise given as a weakly mineralised iron-rich medicinal water, while the “Miłości” spring is given as a natural low-sodium spring water. The operator publishes an analysis of each: iron 11.25 mg/l with calcium 107.81 mg/l and bicarbonates 121.04 mg/l for Barbara, iron 10.66 mg/l with calcium 139.10 mg/l and bicarbonates 450.00 mg/l for Celiński, and iron 0.20 mg/l with calcium 123.04 mg/l and bicarbonates 375.88 mg/l for Miłość. The waters are taken as a drinking cure, which the operator calls krenotherapy, at the Pijalnia Wód Mineralnych, joined to a later palm house and fitted with a fountain and taps fed from the Nałęczów springs. The operator does not state the origin of the water in its swimming pools, and publishes routine pool-water quality assessments for the Atrium pool and the pool at Termy Pałacowe separately.

Pools

The heart of the Kompleks Wodny Atrium, in the Park Zdrojowy, is what the operator describes as a 300-square-metre Aquatonic pool with swimming lanes and an artificial river, with geysers, massage jets and a swan-neck spout for deep body massage; a jacuzzi, bubble beds and pearl benches are also at guests' disposal. Separately within the complex the operator describes the only white clay pool in Poland, the clay brought in specially from Greece, where a treatment usually applied to the face can be taken over the whole body; the operator attributes the clay's properties to a high content of aluminium silicate and to microelements including silicon, calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium and sodium. At Termy Pałacowe, about 200 metres from Atrium, the operator lists a pool with stations for aqua aerobics. The site states that guests of Stare Łazienki, 110 metres away, may use the Atrium complex.

Sauna and wellness

The Atrium complex has a dry and a wet sauna, which the operator sells either inside the pool-zone ticket or as a separate sauna-zone entry. At Termy Pałacowe the operator lists seven cosmetic cabinets, eleven treatment cabinets for biological renewal, a hairdressing salon and the Termy Pałacowe restaurant, and offers SPA and Day SPA treatments alongside hydrotherapy and thermal and electrical procedures. The site states that SPA Nałęczów has run since 2005 and that the company has its own cosmetics line. The complex is rounded off by the Klub Atrium with live music evenings and a bar, a summer terrace with a playground and a grill, and a bowling alley.

Treatments

The operator lists baths and hydromassages, light therapy, electrotherapy, massage and kinesitherapy, and states that it continues a tradition of water treatment more than 200 years old. Named hydrotherapy procedures include whirl massage of the lower limbs, hydromassage, a pearl bath and a dry carbon-dioxide bath. The operator states that all therapeutic treatments in water should be applied in line with medical recommendations, and that balneological treatments here are therefore preceded by a medical or physiotherapy consultation which sets the duration, dose and frequency; it adds that balneotherapy using the medicinal waters is built into every therapeutic stay in its offer. The company also runs a cardiology hospital and cardiac rehabilitation, an orthopaedic rehabilitation programme, outpatient specialist care and an analytical laboratory.

Opening hours

According to the operator the Atrium pool zone — pool, jacuzzi and saunas — is open every day from 09:00 to 21:00, with the last entry at 20:00, and a single entry covers 60 minutes in the water plus a further 10 minutes to change. The white clay pool keeps the same daily 09:00 to 21:00 hours, with the last entry at 19:00 and treatments sold in 20-minute slots. The operator states that children up to the age of five enter the pool zone free. Stays at Termy Pałacowe can be booked online, while the site states that stays in the other houses are booked only by telephone or e-mail.