| The year 1846 is considered to be the beginning of resort treatment in Birštonas, when a physician from Stakliškės, Benediktas Bilinskis, took interest in the Birštonas mineral springs and sent there a patient of his, who failed to be cured with the Stakliškės mineral water, while in the new place she recovered rapidly. However, the chronicles of the resort history are much more ancient, they date back to the medieval times: a Prussian chronicler, Wigand of Marburg, wrote that marshal Kun von Hatenstein during his Lithuanian campaign of 1382, sent his army in three directions to attack Punia, Alytus, and Birštonas. In the archives of Konigsberg, historian Teodor Narbutt found twenty descriptions of crusader spies in Lithuania, telling of “a homestead on salty water”, called Birsten or Birstan. After the Grunwald Battle, Birštonas became a hunting estate for the grand dukes of Lithuania, much frequented by Vytautas Magnus, Casimir Jagiellon, and the Duchess Elena. |
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| The first health spa in Birštonas was built in 1855, while in the end of the eighteen fifties, Birštonas was already widely known as a balneological resort. Before World War I, Birštonas could boast of its spas with 72 baths and three hotels. During the war, Birštonas was severely devastated, while the newly established State of Lithuania could not afford its reconstruction. |
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| The solution came from the Red Cross of Lithuania, which in 1924 signed an agreement with the Department of Health, obligating to refurbish the resort, install mud baths, the water supply and sewage, and provide electricity for the lighting of the town. The leadership of the Red Cross promised to spend all of its profit on the reconstruction and development of the resort. The beginning of mud treatment was a very significant even for Birštonas. First mud baths with the Red Cross emblem were built in 1927, and have survived to date. During World War II, Birštonas hibernated, although did not suffer much, and started its functions as a resort right after the war. |
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| The first mineral water bottling enterprise in Lithuania, operating since 1924, when sipping local mineral water “Vytautas” and “Birutė” was in fashion, is still operating in Birštonas. First batches of mineral water were bottled in Kaunas, while in the sixties, the enterprise was moved into a small plant in Birštonas. The original noncarbonated mineral water of the resort is available for free from the buvettes – small structures over a spring of mineral water – in the “Tulpė” and “Versmė” health-resorts. |
