Nemes János: Healing Budapest - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1993)

Budapest, City of Baths

Budapest, city of baths

It is a commonplace that Budapest is the only capital in the world that is also a city of baths.

“There is no other city of true faith sprouting its springs in such abundance to remedy every ill”-Evlia Chelebi, famous Turkish medieval traveller wrote, talking about Buda.

A 16th-century writer swore his life he had found a spring in Buda in which a pig may boil soft while the fish swimming next to it escape the heat. Although this is somewhat exaggerated, as are the medieval reports stating that wine flows from some of Buda s thermal springs, Pannónia was the favourite healing place of the Romans in ancient Hungary. It is worth visiting the Roman military baths and outdoor exhibition in Óbuda, at the Árpád bridge subway. In those days this was the largest thermal spring of the legion. The pillars of the ancient aqueduct have been preserved, they can be seen today dividing the two lanes of the Budapest- Szentendre road.

Later, in the Middle Ages the Turks built several baths during their 150 year occupation, some of which are still used. They are located mainly along the Buda bank of the Danube (Lukács, Király and Rác baths, etc.)

The eighty springs of the capital give seventy million litres of water a day. According to scientists these thermal waters are extremely rich in salts and minerals. Ranging from 20 to 76 degrees Centigrade they contain a lot of calcium, magnesium, sodium, hydrocarbon, chloride and sulphate. The water of some springs contain a high level of iodine, fluorine, bromine and radium.

Thermal hotels

Gellért Hotel and Thermal Baths

The Gellért Hotel is situated in the centre of town, at the foot of Gellért Hill and Szabadság Bridge. A hospital was built here in the 13th century; patients were bathed here in the sprouting springs. Naturally, the Turks also built their own baths; this was the meeting place of beys and pashas. In the 18th century it was called “Virgins Baths” (it was said to help pregnancy) and later it was named Sárosfürdő (Muddybaths) because of its fine mud.

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