Fürdők – Fürdőhelyek, Magyarország fürdői (Budapest, 2008)

MEDICAL BATHS OF THE AUSTRO - HUNGARIAN MONARCHY Greetings for the readers, The memories of those delightful summers, those years in our grandmothers' and great grandmothers' life when they were young, are getting alive on these pictures. Those good times when there was peace are flashing before our eyes. That was a time on which it is good to look back. INTRODUCTION Our goal is to show the everyday life of the public baths from the mid 19th century till the first half of the 20th century. Most written memories, pictures and objects date back to the time of the Austro - Hungarian Monarchy when there was a great recovery in Hungary. Now the enquirers can take a look at the objective memories of this peaceful and idyllic life when people were closer to each other. Our country had a bigger territory 100 years ago than it has now and it was much more varied as well. Those who wished to have a rest or wanted to cure themselves had multiple varieties to choose between; from the seaside to the high mountains. As the First World War then the Trianon Treaty made this era come to an end, most of the Hungarian people thought and still think about that period as "the good times". THE ORIGIN OF THE PUBLIC BATHS The importance of water in our lives is not necessary to prove. From the very beginning the thermal fountains and mineral waters were used in a way that simple or grand public baths were built above them. The use of the public baths in Hungary has more than a thousand years history as a thriving bath life had been developed in the medieval and through the years of the Turkish domination. The specific bath culture of the Monarchy is not without a premise either as the improvements of the chemical, biological and medical studies had a direct influence on the bath culture itself. From the 18th century; the known medical waters had been examined and systematized since Francis I., the emperor (1792-1835), during his bath political dispositions, announced several Austrian and Czech settlements as pleasure resorts which was also a great advocacy. The biggest supporter of the Hungarian public baths were Joseph, the Palatine of Hungary (1796-1847) who went to Balatonfüred with his family quite often for bath therapy during his official years. His other favorite place was the Rabbit Island in Budapest and he even had it landscaped. The popularity