Nemes János: Healing Budapest - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1993)
The Famous Pető Institute
liget (City Park) is the largest thermal baths in Europe. Its neo-baroque building houses two outdoor pools, a hot and a cold water one. Its thermal, steam and other baths get their thermal water from 1250 metres below the surface, the deepest springs of the capital. The original temperature of the water is 74 to 76 degrees Centigrade. These waters are used for curing arthritis, gout, chronic gynaecological and respiratory diseases and gall bladder disease, too. Drink therapy is recommended for the latter. Open: Monday to Friday: 6.30 am to 8 pm. Saturdays and Sundays: 6.30 am to 1 pm. (Address: H46 Budapest, xiv, Állatkerti út n. Tel.: 121-0310) The famoüs Pető Institüte The Pető institute is well and truly internationally famous. It is almost a tradition that public celebrities, including Princess Diana, visit the institute during their stay in Budapest. More important though is the ever increasing number of patients. Handicapped children from Hungary and abroad often have to wait months, and sometimes years, for their turn to receive treatment. It is to that end that the new building of the International Pető Foundation is being built, sponsored substantially by the Hungarian government and international sources. To explain its popularity, we must talk about the method used here. Known as conductive pedagogy it was developed by Hungarian professor, András Pető, once called “the grandiose conductor of science, will and love” by an Italian admirer. His method, developed in 1945, only became internationally famous a quarter of a century later after a long battle against prejudice and many other obstacles. His dream of building up a network of health and child care, including a training school for its specialists, the “conductors” has finally come true. Today, the Pető Institute has several nursery schools, primary schools and out-patient departments. Pető’s method helps rehabilitate the mentally and physically handicapped whom science and society has 45
