Meskó Csaba: Thermal Baths - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1999)

in the workshop of the celebrated stained glass artist Miksa Róth. The patterns feature the pivotal episodes of János Arany’s epic poem Buda halála (The Death of Buda). At the back of the hall, inside a well-house richly decorated with mosaics stands Adolf Huszár’s statue Venus.

At the front of the hall to the right is the entrance to the women’s thermal and traction bath department, while to the left there is access to the carbonic tub bath department. The changing areas for the bubble bath and the pool with artificial waves are accessible from the central vaulted hall, and it is also here that Béla Szabados’s four statues of the seasons stand, proclaiming that the baths await their guests all the year round.

The Gellért’s pool with wave machine was made in 1927 along with 268 changing cubicles and 164 lockers. In 1928, in order to extend the range of services and to popular acclaim, the management introduced night bathing for the July-August period.

As the pool with artificial waves only operated in summer, there was a demand for the construction of a swimming pool which would be open all year round. Thus a bubble bath was installed in place of the former conservatory in 1934. Eighty-four special air jet pipes were sunk into the bottom of the pool’s shallow end, which was insulated with sheets of lead. The air blown in was provided by a horizontally positioned compressor driven by a 24-horsepower engine with a capacity of blowing 250 cubic metres of air per day. Coloured lights placed between the jet nozzles suffused the pool in mystical illumination.

From the rear of the bathing hall there is access to the men’s thermal and traction bath department. In both the men’s and the women’s thermal bath departments there are three thermal baths of different temperatures, a traction bath, dry-air and humid steam chambers, and refreshing as well as medical massage is also available here.

In the section of the bubble bath and the pool with artificial waves there are warm shallow pools and children's pools, and a sauna with an adjoining cold-water immersion bath can also be found here. Cover fees also include services offered at the thermal bath department. Mud packing, underwater massage, chiropody and tub baths are available. There is also a Comprehensive Physiotherapy Department on the premises operating as a day hospital. From April to September guests can sun themselves on the popular women's and naturists’ roof terraces.

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