The railway from Bratislava to Žilina reached Piešťany in 1876, and a spa that had been reached by carriage could suddenly be reached by the trainload. In 1889 the Erdődys leased it to the firm of Alexander Winter and Sons, and Alexander's son Ľudovít Winter spent the next fifty years turning a provincial bathing place into an international resort: the Kursalon in 1893, the Grand Hotel Royal in 1906, and in 1910–1912 the Art Nouveau Thermia Palace with the Irma bath house beside it, designed together by Henrik Böhm and Ármin Hegedűs so that a guest could go from bedroom to treatment without stepping outdoors. Winter also understood advertising. In 1894 he asked the draughtsman Arthur Heyer for a simple emblem of healing and got the barlolámač, a man snapping his crutches over his knee; he patented it at once and still spent years defending it in some forty lawsuits. It is the town's coat of arms today.Železnica z Bratislavy do Žiliny dorazila do Piešťan roku 1876 a kúpele, do ktorých sa dovtedy chodilo kočom, boli odrazu dostupné po celých vlakoch. Roku 1889 ich Erdődyovci prenajali firme Alexander Winter a synovia a Alexandrov syn Ľudovít Winter potom päťdesiat rokov menil vidiecke kúpalisko na medzinárodné kúpele: roku 1893 Kursalon, roku 1906 Grand Hotel Royal a v rokoch 1910 – 1912 secesný Thermia Palace s kúpeľným domom Irma vedľa neho, navrhnuté spoločne architektmi Henrikom Böhmom a Árminom Hegedűsom tak, aby hosť prešiel z izby na procedúru bez toho, že by vyšiel von. Winter rozumel aj reklame. Roku 1894 požiadal kresliara Arthura Heyera o jednoduchý symbol uzdravenia a dostal barlolámača, muža lámajúceho barly cez koleno; dal si ho okamžite patentovať a aj tak ho musel brániť v štyridsiatich súdnych sporoch. Dnes je to mestský znak.
