In 1945 Piešťany at last received the statute of a town. It had held market-town privileges under its lords since 1642, but in the modern administrative sense it had been a village until then. On 21 October that year the barlolámač, until then the spa's trademark, became the municipal coat of arms. Three years later the Communist state nationalised the spa along with every other bath in Czechoslovakia, and Ľudovít Winter was pushed out of his own life's work a second time — the man who built the Thermia Palace was even forbidden to make the crossing over the river between the spa and the town. He lived out his years quietly and poor, and died in Piešťany on 15 September 1968 at the age of ninety-seven, having outlived the Habsburg empire, the first republic, the Slovak State and his own spa.Roku 1945 dostali Piešťany konečne štatút mesta. Výsady zemepanského mestečka mali od roku 1642, ale v modernom správnom zmysle boli dovtedy obcou. Dvadsiateho prvého októbra toho roku sa barlolámač, dovtedy ochranná známka kúpeľov, stal mestským znakom. O tri roky komunistický štát kúpele znárodnil, tak ako všetky ostatné v Československu, a Ľudovíta Wintera vytlačili z diela jeho života druhý raz — muž, ktorý postavil Thermiu Palace, mal dokonca zakázané prechádzať cez rieku medzi kúpeľmi a mestom. Dožil ticho a chudobne a zomrel v Piešťanoch 15. septembra 1968 vo veku deväťdesiatsedem rokov; prežil habsburskú monarchiu, prvú republiku, slovenský štát aj vlastné kúpele.
