Buza Péter: Spring and Fountains - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1994)

neighbourhood. Rather than survey all these references, we shall have to limit ourselves to recalling the end result: by the beginning of this century the spring had become virtually inaccessible, and in another lifetime, even its memory was completely wiped out, so much so that its very place became impossible to locate, and there is nothing certain recorded in the city annals of its history.

The writer of the present lines is now obliged-but what a pleasant obligation it is!—to switch over to the first person singular, while attempting to give a summary of how this once famous spring of Pest was rediscovered, how its neo-classical well-house was rebuilt, and to say what can and has to be said about the story of his own, eventually successful, venture.

1 first started to collect written references essential for locating the spring. Even in this initial phase, it became clear that, contrary to the claims of some sources on the city’s history, the spring was not destroyed with the construction of the Ludovika. Some very fine maps have also been found, so with the support of Győző Horváth, acting chairman of the Meteor Association of Nature-Loving Hikers and with the active participation of the association’s members, we were able to start excavations on the site. At five minutes past 11 am on Sunday, 26 October 1986, our work bore its secretly hoped for and yet surprising fruit when, under its carefully vaulted covering arch, we discovered the well-stump which had preserved the original tapping unimpaired.

We took another three years to complete the excavations and prepare the site for full reconstruction. With the financial and practical help of several supporters and to designs made by Márta Vörös, the well-house was finished by August 1991. We held the unveiling ceremony on the day of Elias, when a priest of the Serbian Parish of Pest consecrated the fountain. (In 1992, a procession marched to the once famous fountain. This could be the first sign of a fine old tradition being resurrected.)

The excavations and simultaneous research work contributed several findings to what we had known about the spring. The cistern tapping reaches down to a depth of approximately eight metres, and the longer section of the shaft, which has a circular cross section with an average diameter of about 1.5 metres, is sunk into the limestone layer. The shaft was made with the method of well-drilling, with the purpose of making the maintenance of the outlet point easier in order to control the water yield.

This yield was enormous compared to the delivery of fountains in Buda. Calculations put it at 500 litres per minute! Such an amount of water could indeed support a planned watermains system. That the yield was actually this large could

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