Fraternity-Testvériség, 2009 (87. évfolyam, 1-3. szám)
2009-01-01 / 1. szám
FEATURE ARTICLE "TAKING THE WATERS" IN HUNGARY Ask any Hungarian or visitor to Budapest which is his favorite Hungarian bath, and you’ll hear a decided choice and definite opinion. My husband frequents the Széchenyi baths when he visits because of its outdoor pools. Personally, I like Hévíz because it is the largest hot- water therapeutic lake in the world with a peat bottom. And the late Rev. Imre Bertalan, past HR FA President, used to frequent the Lukács baths when he stayed on Margit Island. What makes these baths such a desired part of Hungarian tourism and a vital part of Hungarian culture? First, Hungarian baths have a history that’s tied to Hungary’s physical location and its colorful past. In the first couple of centuries A.D., the Romans enjoyed their baths and then 1500 years later, the Turks revived the custom of bathing. Then, at the end of the 19th century when the city-dwelling middle class partook of a rich cultural life, more people than ever enjoyed the thermal waters. Today, the greatest interest in bathing in Hungary has been propelled by tourism and medicine. All this could not have happened if the Carpathian Basin had not furnished the country with thermal waters because Hungary boasts the fifth largest amount of such waters in the world. The reason for this is at this region of the Earth, the crust is thinner than usual so the geothermal temperature grows one and a half times faster towards the center of the planet than elsewhere in Europe which means that the temperature of the waters is higher and one does not have to drill as deep to get to thermal waters. At the same time, the mineral content differs between locations, so Hungary offers more than 100 distinct variations of thermal water. Historians believe this is the reason that Roman legionnaires and citizens founded several baths in Pannónia in the Transdanubian region of Hungary. In Aquincum which is in Óbuda, fourteen baths were in By Kathy A, Megyeri operation with floor heating, cold, lukewarm and hot water pools, steam baths, sports halls, and entertainment centers. But Roman baths also existed in Balf, Pécs, Szentendre and Tata. When the Barbarians of the Middle Ages destroyed the remnants of the Roman culture with its emphasis on hygiene, the baths were ignored. Instead, thermal waters drove mills and the local peasants bathed in natural lakes. But at the beginning of the 16th century, after the Magyars suffered heavy losses in the battle at Mohács in 1526 and when the Turks invaded and captured Buda in 1541, their tradition of bathing, which can be traced back through the Byzantines to the Romans, began to spread throughout Hungary. When the Turks ruled Budapest from 1526-1686, they improved upon the latter-day Roman invention of multi-chambered hot and cold baths. The Turks’ minarets, mosques, and lodgings for dervishes were built along with several baths which are still operating in Budapest today, especially the Rudas, the Császár, the Király and the Rácz. When Buda was retaken in 1686 and the Turks left, the baths became the property of the Austrian Emperor and the treasury rented most of them out to doctors or businessmen. The rest were given to cities or sold, but in the 18th century, several bath houses were built near lakes and springs. Then, after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, when political consolidation made it possible for towns and cities to develop and for the middle class to grow, bathing 14 SPRING 2009
