Gál Éva: Margaret Island - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2000)

in the shallow waters. Drilling started in December 1866 and produced the expected result in the spring of 1867, when a powerful jet of thermal water at a temperature of 43.8 degrees Celsius gushed forth from a depth of 118.5 metres. On the basis of a chemical analysis conducted by Professor Károly Than, it was concluded that the medicinal water could effectively be used for the treatment of gout, arthritis, osteo-, neuralgic and gynaecological ailments. tuberculosis and a host of other complaints.

The well-house in 1877

Besides his talent for business, Archduke Joseph seems to have had a sense of quality, too: he commissioned Miklós Ybl, possibly the best architect of the era, to design and build a bathing complex to extend over the entire island. Ybl designed a magnificent bathing hall in neo- Renaissance style, large and small hotels, a well-house, villas, restaurants, an engine-house, a laundry and other auxiliary units, mainly for the upper island near the well opened up in 1867. Construction work was in full swing as early as 1868, with traffic on the island facilitated by a horse tram. The grand ceremonial opening of the bathing complex was held at Whitsun in 1869, attended by a host of notables. By then the restaurant on the lower island and the well-house had been fully completed and the Margaret Baths was almost ready; the grand and small hotels were under construction, and so were the

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