Everyone knows about Radenska; for the vast majority of people, it is a synonym for mineral water, just as digitron is a synonym for a calculator or a calodont for toothpaste, but relatively few people in Croatia know about the Radenci spa, or as it is officially called Zdravilišče Radenci in Slovenian. These spas are located in the Slovenian town of the same name, which has a little over two thousand inhabitants, and is about 130 km or a 2-hour drive from Zagreb. Once upon a time, during socialism, the Radenska mineral water bottling plant and the Radenci thermal baths were a single (social) enterprise, but today they are two separate companies, with the Radenci thermal baths operating within the group Sava Hotels & Resorts.
Terme Radenci they are specific in that they also offer mineral wellness. Bathing in mineral water accelerates the elimination of waste materials from organisms, reduces numerous health problems associated with poor blood circulation, and generally helps strengthen the body's resistance. They also offer inhalations with mineral water, which can be enriched with essential oils and even medicines if desired, and they also offer "Henn's glass" - drinking mineral water with carbon dioxide in the health salon.
Why Henn's glass? Karl Henn while still a medical student in 1833, he discovered Raden's mineral water sources, and in 1865, after having previously bought land, he began looking for the main source of mineral water. Four years later, the first earthen bottles of mineral water were filled, and a year later, in 1870, 37.000 bottles of mineral water from Radenac - Radenska were already filled and sold. In 1882, the development of spa tourism began.
As part of the thermal baths, there are two hotels, Izvir and Radin, and the entire complex has an indoor swimming pool, and a handful of saunas in the thermal oasis connected to its two hotels - Turkish bath, Finnish, infrared, herbal... After the sauna, you can dip into the pool with cold water, and they also have an outdoor sauna after which you can rest in a whirlpool with warm water. In addition to mineral water, of course, they also have thermal water, as well as medicinal mud called "fango", which transmits its heat deep into the tissue, reducing muscle tension, relaxing connective tissue, and easing joint and back pain. As part of Zdravilišč Radenci, there is also a health center for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, and the complex also has 5 conference halls.
When you are already in the Radenci thermal baths, you should also get to know the nice town of the same name in which they are located, and its surroundings. Chapel wine fountain it is located some three kilometers south of the thermal baths. You can get there in no time by car, and there is also a pedestrian path that avoids a good part of the always busy road. It is located on Kapelski vrh, in the center of the Radgonsko - Kapelske gorice, bounded by the Mura river in the east and northeast, the Apaško polje in the west and northwest, and the Ščavnica river in the south.
It offers an excellent view that stretches all the way to Pohorje in Maribor and Zagreb Sljema. Of course, that place is also great for capturing memories, i.e. taking photos. The wine fountain works on the principle that you buy a ticket with a barcode there, and then by reading the barcode you can taste up to 6 different types of wine from that region, such as traminac and white burgundy Kapela, yellow muscat Klobas or muscat ottonel from Radgonski gorica.
Attila's path leads to the wine chapel, and local legend says that the nearby church of St. Magdalene built on the remains of his former fortress. In the center of the viewpoint/wine tasting room is a fountain in the form of an ancient clay jug. There is also "heartbroken" - by inserting a €2 coin, the machine throws out a heart made of crystals such as tiger's eye, aventurine or jasper... They also offer delicious snacks in the form of crackers and cheese with pumpkin oil and seeds.
It is also nice to walk around the immediate surroundings of the spa, i.e. the spacious park located there. There are also many old imposing buildings such as the Ljubljana House (formerly Tito's House) and the Slatin House. At the place where Radenska was bottled for the first time in 1869, there is a spring (hot spring) pavilion, and within it is a glazed spring with rising bubbling water - medicinal spring.
It is nice to take a walk through Radenice itself to the iron spring. In Radenci, there are beautiful city gardens, beautifully decorated children's playgrounds with musical walls, excellent cycling infrastructure, and part of the light poles are decorated with flowers in pots under which there are also three hearts - the symbol of Radenje water. On the iron spring, you can see the brown sediment of iron flowing from the spring, but don't worry, the water can be drunk from the spring itself. For those more ambitious walkers, there is also a 15-kilometer long "Path between the springs of life" - a path through the springs of life. Through this circular walking tour, which takes about two and a half hours, you can visit seven springs, it consists of 24 points.
Some six kilometers northwest of Radenac, on the Mura river, directly next to Austria, is the town of Gornja Radgona, where the famous winery is located. Radgonske gorice. Their tasting room and wine shop in Jurkovičeva street is open from Monday to Saturday; in the first three months of the year, it works from 9 am to 17 pm, and the remaining nine months from 9 am to 19 pm. Wines have been produced in this winery since 1852. The first and most awarded Slovenian sparkling wine was created there - Zlata Radgonska penina, which won ten times the championship title at international wine evaluations, which is why they are proudly called the home of sparkling wine. They cultivate some 100 hectares of vineyards and employ 130 people.
There you can visit their rich archive, walk through the old ice house, renovated in 1997, which has as an attraction water that flows from the rock and descends towards the ground through carved cascades, see an exhibition with chronologically arranged labels of their wines, rent a bicycle for a ride through the vineyards and of course enjoy pairing wine and food in one of the guided tasting tours. They also offer sparkling wines untouched by light, made using the classic method. We tasted sparkling wine Ciconia, jubilee 170 yrs selection, Golden rosé, Silver sparkling wine i Vintage, and all of this was accompanied by a fantastic gastro course. Of course, this is only part of their offer.
In the wine shop you can buy, for example, sparkling wine that has been aged at the bottom of the Mura River, sparkling wine made from Traminac and Muscat, standard wines such as Janževec (or a spritzer in a can with this wine called ŠpriCAR), cuvée red or Tigrovo wine, as well as their vinjak Silver Bouvier VSOP on the basis of chardonnay, from which their golden sparkling wine is usually made, and a vanilla-flavored brandy called Monarch. In their wine shop, you can also buy products from small family farms in the area, such as honey or pear juice from the Firbas homestead. The wine shop itself is intriguingly decorated with chairs for visitors in the form of corks and envelopes for sparkling wine...
From Radenac to the regional center Moorish Saturdays it is some fifteen kilometers in the direction of the east. Radenci are located in the historical region of Styria, and in the statistical region of Pomurje, whose seat is Murska Sobota. On the southern edge of the city is the artificial lake Sobotska Kamešnica created by digging gravel, and on the western edge of that lake there is Pavilion Expano. The goal was to make a kind of "Door of Pomurje"; an interactive experience park where visitors can learn about the natural and cultural heritage, as well as the thermal and active adventures of Pomurje.
Here you can watch a film that evokes the history of this climate from the time of the Pannonian Sea to the present day, "fly" in a hot air balloon using VR glasses, and there is also a unique Neurospa – the point is to control the water with your own thoughts; devices on your head measure this and show the result on the display. There is an aquarium with freshwater fish that live in the Mura river, as well as stuffed bird species that live in the area, and the whole complex has a well-equipped souvenir shop, and a cafe bar with a restaurant where you can taste langoustines (the influence of Hungarian cuisine, because unlike from the rest of Slovenia, Prekmurje was in the Hungarian, not in the Austrian part of the K.uK monarchy), gypsy baking, domestic dodole, and there is of course Prekmurje gibanica.