It’s bath-night all the year round in Hungary

Press, 26 August 1978, Page 14

It’s bath-night all the year round in Hungary

By

ROSS BROWN

“Whatever the politics of our nation,” a man in Budapest confided in me, "we’ve never relaxed our interest in visiting the thermal baths.” And the Hungarians have many from which to choose. In a country only one-third the area of New Zealand, there are 450 thermal springs and wells. The daily yield of these medicinal springs amounts to 500,000 cubic metres of water. Budapest, the monumental capital, has 120 places where 50,000 cubic, metres of water gush to the surface. Of its 32 baths, 10 are medicinal; visitors can combine a swim with medical treatment. These copious hot springs were used by the Celts about 2000 years ago. Their settlement was named Ak-Ink, meaning 'ample waters.” The Romans latinised this to Atjuincum. The Turks, invading Hungary in 1526, generally allowed towns to decay, yet the wealth of spas flattered their love of reclining in warm waters. Turkish baths still exist as part of the famous Kirafy, Rudas, Csaszar, and Racz spas in Budapest. Therapeutic bathing in the modern sense began early in the nineteenth century. Many Budapest citizens spend the whole day at Szechenyi baths, close to a fairground, zoo, circus, and park. Outside, streetvendors sell cakes, balloons, iced drinks, and lottery tickets. The baths occupy a former palace and have waters rich in calcium, magnesium, chlorides, sulphates and various alkalines. Water temperature reaches 73 degress Celsius from two springs, and ■water streams cut of fountains or sculptures ranged around different pools. On hot days hardly a square metre of the pools or surrounding area is free of people. They swim, or sit in the water, for hours. They play chess or cards at rickety tables; they sunbathe; and they queue for sausages and bread and beer. IBUSZ, the Hungarian Travel Agency, says that the Szechenyi baths are recommended for the treatment of degenerative illnesses of the joints and chronic arthritis, while the spring waters can be drunk for catarrhal ailments of the stomach, the biliary ducts, and respiratorial organs. Across the Danube in Buda, at the base of the limestone Gellert Hill — popular belief held that

witches met there on Saturday nights — are three baths, Rudas, Racz, and Gellert. Recently restored, the elegant Gellert Hotel baths once catered for Budapest’s elite and affluent foreigners. Entering a sublime hall of pillars and mosaics, I was confused by the many signs packed with Hungarian lettering. The Hungarian baths welcome foreigners but do little to soften obvious language problems. Often one elects to follow other bathers into one of the countless doors, with perplexing results. I was eventually handed a sheaf of tickets and paid what seemed a high price in a relatively cheap-cost land. The tickets were delivered to a series of attendants as I descended along colourfully-tiled corridors with diffused lighting to a changing room.

A notice forbade smoking: a muscular attendant smoked. I was given a bathing-cap for one of the tickets and, on returning this when leaving most of the money was refunded. Indeed. an unlimited sojourn in Gellert’s radioactive waters costs less than SNZI.

Gellert’s waters are reputed to cure gout and diseases of the nervous system. In the main indoor bath, with an artifical wave-making machine, people stand under water streaming from the mouths of statues. Leath-er-backed chairs are ranged around the walls and the sun beams through a glass roof. The Budapest baths include steam baths, hot air and steam chambers, carbon dioxide and spalt baths, mud pack treatment, with facilities for therapeutic massage and physiotherapeutic treatment. The outdoor baths of Lukacs, Szechenyi, and the Sports Baths on Margaret Island in the Danube

are open in winter even when snow is falling. In the country one popular resort is at Harkany, near Yugoslavia. Harkany’s waters have a high sulphur content. The spa hospital has several rheumatological and dermatological departments. Another leading medicinal bath is at Hajluszoboszlo, on the Great Hungarian Plain not far from Rumania. This is described as “the most dynamically developing spa,” specialising in curing ailments of the blood vascular system. The waters, with an iodine-bromine, bitumen, and sodium chloride content, were discovered in the 1920 s during drilling for oil. “This place should interest you,” said a Hungarian physiotherapist. We were at Heviz. “The nearest such place.” says the tourist manuals, “is in New

Zealand.” The Hungarians have exaggerated the popularity of “the only other similar lake in the world,” in New Zealand. Heviz, near the western end of Lake Balaton (the largest freshwater lake in Europe) was known to the Romans and is visited by thousands of locals and foreigners daily. Half a square kilometer in area, Heviz lake is enriched by red water-lilies. Springs produce 86 million litres of water a day, meaning that the lake’s water is replaced every 28 hours. The surface temperature is between 29 deg. C and 36 deg. C, making winter bathing possible. “The water is slightly radio-active,” explained the Hungarian, “and we advise people not to bathe longer than one hour. It can be harmful to children under 16 years, to preg» nant women, and to people with a heart complaint. “These waters contain sulphurous, radon, thorium, and carbon dioxide

compounds which affect the hormones and can be recommended for sufferers of ataxia disorders. “The mud coating the bottom of the lake is also used as part of balneotherapy, mainly for gynaecological problems.” I watched people of all ages — children ignoring the advice broadcast in five languages — and sizes entering Lake Heviz, many clutching an inflated car tube. Nearby, towering over the turreted wooden bath-houses frcftn the nineteenth century, was the t w o-year-old Thermal Hotel. Health and tranquility from curative waters — that is the dominant impression of Heviz. Hungarians, uniformed in tracksuits, saunter around the flower-scented streets. Aged people from the country — men with waxed moustaches and women in bright shawls — sell wood-carvings, delicate lacewdrk, and cherries. Balneotherapy is experiencing a renaissance in Hungary. Ancient baths and spas are being renovated with the latest equipment ' and staffed with medical expertise. One aim is to prevent and cure disease, and the Hungarians look a healthy folk. But not only that: a land with 10 million inhabitants had 12J million foreign tourists last year.