PIEŠŤANY city portal

Piešťany reflected through the postal history

This article is part of last issue of Revue Piešťany - trilingual (Slovak, English, German) magazine about town, spa and surroundings. Here it is available to read, download and print in FLASH format.

An exhibition bearing this name was held in the hotel Sandor Pavillon from March 26th to April 28th, 2010. The aim of the exhibition was to document the beginnings of the postal system in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, focusing on the territory of Slovakia. In the introductory part of the exhibition you could find examples of messages sent from Piešťany by some travellers, public figures, and aristocrats. A letter from 1614 was mentioned, which informed the palatine Juraj Turzo of the sudden death of Alžbeta Báthory at the Čachtice castle. The exhibition also tried to find an answer for the question why a letter from Ludwig van Beethoven´s estate in 1801, which he probably wrote in Piešťany to his beloved Therese Brunswick, was not sent. Was there no messenger available, or did he have personal reasons? He mentions moving the Post Office to K, which might stand for Kostoľany, a place where occasional postal carriages – stage coaches - drove through. The exhibition focused in more detail on the opening of the permanent Post Office in Piešťany in 1851. It included authentic documents on the activity of the Post Office throughout its entire existence, since its establishment until now, reflecting political changes in the operation of the office. One of the most interesting exhibits contained what is probably the oldest letter from June 1851 sent to Moravia, a sample of correspondence between the family of Alexander Winter, the tenant of the spa, and the spa owners – family Erdödy of the Hlohovec manor. The portable mail box of 1824 from the collection of the Balneology Museum also aroused big interest. It was supposed to serve for receiving consignments in the house marked on the map of the same year as the Post horn. In that time in Piešťany there was only a post collection centre, which occasionally received mail that was to be delivered to the Post Office in Hlohovec, and after 1845, to the Post Office in Rakovice. The buildings that used to be the property of the Sandor Pavillon functioned as a changing station for postal horses in the past. For this reason the exhibition held on these premises also had a symbolic implication. A note from the field post of 1915, which was also a part of the exhibition, proves that a military hospital had its seat in this building during the First World War, and that consignments of the military ´field post´ were received here for transport. The exposition also documented the buildings in which the Piešťany Post Office had its residence throughout its history.

The documentation of significant events reflected in occasional post seals was interesting too. Just to name a few, there were seals made for ethnographic celebrations (1936), the promotion of Piešťany to town status (1945), conferences and anniversaries, and even the National Air Show and meeting of the presidents of the V4. The exhibition thrilled collectors, but also captured everyone’s interest in regional history, as well as in the fine art of stamps, seals, envelopes of the First Day Cover Stamps (FDC), and analogous post cards (Cartes Maximum). The contribution of the post service to improvements in communication between individuals and institutions is undeniable. It was the first step towards a modern informed society. The exhibits of the exhibition were borrowed from the collection of the Post Museum in Banská Bystrica, the expert guarantor of the exhibition, but local collectors of postal history also contributed greatly.