Truskavets

Truskavets has been a spa since the early nineteenth century and its reputation rests on one water: Naftusia, a weakly mineralised water with a distinct petroleum note, drunk from the pump room in measured doses on a schedule set by a doctor rather than bathed in. It loses its properties within hours of leaving the ground, which is why the treatment has to happen here. The town is a mix of Austrian-era villas, Soviet sanatoria and a long central park.

Background

Truskavets lies in a small valley in the Carpathian foothills, in Drohobych Raion of Lviv Oblast, and had an estimated 28,287 residents in 2022. Records first mention it in 1469, as Truskawiec. The earliest description of its waters came in 1578 from the royal doctor Wojciech Oczko. The first baths opened in 1827, and in 1836 Józef Micewski started building the spa complex. A railway station followed in 1911, and by 1913 about 5,000 visitors came each year. During the 1920s and 1930s the town gained almost 300 hotels, villas and guest houses. The town's coat of arms shows a goose with raised wings holding a branch in its beak.

Source: Wikipedia, "Truskavets"

What you'll find

• The pump room - the bathhouse where Naftusia is drunk to prescription.
• The central park - the long promenade the whole town is arranged along.
• The wooden villas - Austrian-era spa architecture surviving among later blocks.
• The sanatoria - the treatment infrastructure the town runs on.

When to go

May to October is the pleasant season, though the sanatoria work year round. Courses run to two or three weeks, which is how the town is designed to be used. Summer is busiest.

What to expect

This is a working medical spa, not a leisure resort, and a day visit gets little from it. Soviet-era sanatorium architecture dominates. The water tastes strongly of petroleum and takes getting used to.

Nearby

Drohobych is northeast, and Skhidnytsia is south in the foothills.

Key facts