Fürdők – Fürdőhelyek, Magyarország fürdői (Budapest, 2008)

of the resort places and holidays was due to the guidance of the Hungarian aristocracy and recruitment of the bourgeoisie. At the end of the 19th century, with the development of the cities, lot of people felt that there was a time to get away from the crowd and to spend the summer in a healthier place, close to the nature. LIFE ON A BATH PLACE After the long winter, when the summer came and the schools were all closed, that was when the real holiday began. Most of the families went to a well-known holiday or a pleasure resort if they could afford it. These places opened with a grand ceremony on 1st or the 1 5th of May and closed with another one on 15th of September or on 1st of October. The approach of these resorts was eligible to the transportation conditions of that era; first they traveled by stage coach, then by train and from the beginning of the 20th century they got there by their own automobiles. Within the Monarchy there was no need for a passport, and that is made so much easier to travel. If we take a look at a typical pleasure resort of that period, we can notice that there was determined a general appearance by the visitors whose expectations made the place look different from other nearby settlements. Necessarily the most important thing was the hot or cold medical water itself with a bath built on it. The resort was located on a nice, natural environment, secured from the strong winds, surrounded by rich flora and pine-grove wood. A well stood in the middle of a beautiful, tended park and above it a shield was built to protect it from the rain. As a scratch, long and neat paths lead to the nearby forests or the belvedere. Probably the most specific attachment was a covered esplanade which was meant to be a place where guests could meet and took a walk even if it was raining. While in smaller and more simple resorts these boardwalks were made of wood, in elegant places these were made of stone, iron and glass. The guests' apartments either were in a detached building or they rented a flat in the settlement nearby. If it was a bigger place then there were hotels as well and it was common that when the guests had any problems employees on the bath directory solved them. There were lists of every visitors of the place and these lists, called "curelists", had been saved and now they are important documents of that era. The resort usually had a doctor who received the patients' visits on different days of the week, in bigger places the doctor stayed for the whole summer. The holiday and the cure were close to each other as most of the guests took some healing course even if it wasn't necessary. These courses were different and there were a lot of them: drinking - grape - air - and sludge courses, salty - warm or cold baths. The time these guests spent in the resorts was much longer than it would be today, as the length varied between four weeks to eight or ten weeks. The most important accessory of the bath life was the medical room. It was a spacious and well-decorated saloon, which was used by the visitors during the day so as they didn't have to go back to their apartments after