Holló Szilvia Andrea: Budapest's Public Works - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)

Natural or artificial?

■ The "Vinegar Well"yielding foul waten at the beginning of Áldás utca, c. igoo

ment in the medicinal properties of the water was achieved when the lead pipes were replaced with cast iron tubing under the supervision of civic engineer József Baczó. The next time the Danube waterworks gained a strategic significance was during the 1848-1849 War of Independence, when control over the facility could easily have decided the final outcome of the siege. "[General Heinrich! Hentzi had prepared nothing more for the protection oh the Danube-side waterworks than a makeshiht palisade whose possible loss could soon render the castle indehensible."

Nevertheless, the water supply of Buda had come to be critical by the mid 19th century. The city’s growing population still received its drinking water from the Danube conveyed to the dual trough of the communal well outside the Castle Theatre by way of a mechanism driven by four horses; the Sváb Hill springs feeding the three communal wells and providing water conveyed to the large cistern in front of the Town Hall were running low with conveyance being slowed down anyway by deposits accumulating in the pipelines. To guarantee unimpeded water supply and acceptable water quality, the Palatine’s Council recommended that the City Council order plans for a steam-powered waterworks from Adam Clark, then based in Buda. Master well-digger János Hofbauer was recommended as the best candidate for

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