The secrets of the baths of Budapest

It is summer, the weather is “on fire”, and most of us can’t wait to cool down in a pool. Lucky for us, the pool and water selection is quite wide in Budapest, so we suggest that you stop by one of the swimming pools, spas, historic baths of the city. To make your choice easier, funzine.hu collected some curiosities and secrets about five of the most popular baths.

Gellért Bath

• There are documents from the 15^th century that already mentioned the “magical” springs found under the thermal bath. Later they were adored by the Turks, since the bath was bigger and its water was hotter compared to other baths.
• It was called Sárosfürdő (Muddy Bath) in the 17^th century due to the spring mud at the bottom of the pools.
• The bath is a beloved location of both Hungarian and international commercials and movies. For instance, the Danone commercial and certain scenes of Spy were shot there.

Lukács Bath

• In the 12^th century, Saint John knights occupied with nursing settled down in the neighbourhood of today’s Lukács Bath. They were followed by the orders of Rhodes and Malta, who built a bath near their monastery.
• The bath also functioned in the Ottoman era, but the power of springs was used for gunpowder manufacturing and grain milling. After the recapture of Buda, the bath became the property of the treasury.
• In 1884, Fülöp Palotay bought it from the treasury and reconstructed the whole institution. A sanatorium and a hydrotherapeutic department were built, and the pools were rebuilt. People desiring to heal came from all over the world and left marble plates of gratitude on the wall of the bath’s yard.
• It was the beloved meeting point of white-collar workers, politicians and artists. It is believed that one of the city’s most effective thermal springs is found here.
• Before the change of regime, a party secretary couldn’t take the view of the Saint Luke statue on the wall anymore, so he took a ladder and a hammer. But when he tried to inflict the first blow on the statue, the ladder slipped and he fell badly to the ground. During the restoration of 2006, the so called “shelled crack” caused by the party secretary was left in the statue.