Meskó Csaba: Thermal Baths - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1999)
Sultan Sulayman; the cupolas rising above its centre and four corners are supported by twelve huge pillars. ” The baths survived the siege of Buda Castle. At the beginning of the 18th century, ownership of the building was conferred on János Ecker, who added new chambers and a chapel. In 1806 the baths was purchased by court councillor István Marczibányi, who donated it to the Buda Brothers of Mercy on condition that they spend its revenue on maintenance of their hospital. At the time the Császár was a modest little bath. Between 1841 and 1844 it was reconstructed to plans by József Hild (retaining the Doric colonnade on the first floor built in 1806). That was when the large medical courtyard and the two auxiliary buildings containing a hundred apartment rooms and eighty-five bathrooms were built. The conversion of the original enclosed bath into a steam bath can be dated to 1860, the year when the marble bath was also made. It was also in 1860 that a women’s indoor swimming pool (25 metres by 10) and another, outdoor one for men (50 metres by 20) were opened in the Császár Baths. Until the 1930 opening of the National Sports Swimming Pool, this was the only sports pool in Budapest which met international requirements. By the first half of the 19th century, the huge medical courtyard well suited for the hosting of evenings and balls had become the venue of the most elegant social events of the period. In the 1860s a ball was given here every Wednesday, of which the best known were the so-called Anna balls. The writer and journalist Imre Aldor says in his guide to Budapest published under the pen-name Cassius, “Of all the watering places in Buda, Császár, the bath of national renown, is by far the most famous.” Here is his brief survey of the bath’s history: "... every former lord of Buda was very much aware of its advantages ... whose pleasurable and beneficial effects were known to the Romans, who already used it as a watering place ... The pleasure-seeking Turks who never missed a chance to gratify their senses also held it in high esteem. Its proprietors had frequently changed before it at last became the property of the gracious lord Marczibányi in the early 1800s, who bestowed its ownership on the Buda Brothers of Mercy. The bath is now under the judicious management of this order, whose 31
