Gellert Baths in Budapest: description, history, visit features and reviews

The Hungarian capital Budapest is an ancient city, famous throughout the world for its sights and memorable places. This is primarily the majestic Danube, on the banks of which there are magnificent buildings (for example, the building of the parliament of the country). The city has many religious buildings - the Basilica of St. Istvan, a synagogue, many palaces and castles.

Perhaps someone has read the information about Budapest, to face the fact that sometimes it is called "the city of bathing." And this is no accident - today in the city there are more than thirty institutions of this type that differ in the cost of tickets, the level and quality of the services provided. Few pompous bathhouses Gellert, very popular Szechenyi or modern Rudas, like many others, are waiting for their guests throughout the year. There are several complexes that meet holidaymakers only in the summer. Probably, it would be more correct to call them bathing beaches, because here, as a rule, they do not cure, but get great pleasure from local water, fresh air and comfortable living.

Baths Gellert in Budapest, with great competition are recognized by specialists and vacationers the most beautiful. It's funny that at the beginning of the bath was called Sarosfurdo, which means "dirty". This name was associated with a large amount of silt in the lake formed by the sewage waters of Mount Gellert.

History

Residents of Budapest like to tell a legend about a monk-hermit who lived in a cave over a future bath. He first experienced the healing properties of local water and began to offer patients to plunge into the waters of the muddy lake. It is mud that distinguishes Gellert's baths from other institutions of this type.

Thermal springs on this land were discovered as far back as 1433. Local chronicles keep mentioning that bathhouses and bathhouses Gellert (Budapest) was visited by King Andras II of the ancient Arpad dynasty. He ruled the country in the XIII century. Here he took baths, and he ordered the sources to build the first water sanatorium. They won the Ottomans and destroyed it and erected a Turkish bath in this place.

In the first half of the XIX century, Blocksbad (the so-called bathhouses in German manners) became the property of István Segic. He opened a "healing magic source" for visiting the general public. Over the baths was built a one-story building of very modest size. Immediately the inhabitants of Buda and Pest began to call it contemptuously "a muddy barn". The situation was managed by Emperor Franz Joseph I, who heard a lot about the healing properties of "dirty baths". He ordered the construction of a building over the baths of the building, "equal in beauty to the palaces of kings." The construction of the complex lasted six years. Its official opening took place in 1918. So there was a medical bath and pool Gellert.

Description of the building

The magnificent complex, which is a hotel and a spa at the same time, was executed in the fashionable style of Art Nouveau at that time. The project was led by well-known architects Negedus Armin, Sebastian Arthur and Shtern Isidor. They managed to create a real masterpiece: marble columns, arched gates that adorn statues, huge stained glass windows, which depict scenes from epic poems, magnificent floor mosaics, huge pools of rare Zholnai pyro granite.

The building is more like a luxurious palace than the usual balneary, which until then had rather modest interiors. The four-story structure of the Gellert Hotel with its stucco molding on the facade and the dome has been attracting visitors for almost a hundred years, and the interiors impress with splendor.

Beach swimming pool

In 1927, the complex was supplemented by a beach bath with Jacuzzi baths and waves. The original unit that creates waves, works even today, although the World War II hotel-palace did not spare. Gellert's bathhouses were bombed several times, and the complex was almost completely destroyed.

The severe economic situation in the post-war years did not allow it to be restored in its original form. It took years to recover. Only the grandiose reconstruction of 2008 allowed the Gellért Spa Hotel to restore its former splendor, which, in fact, is a novelty.

Bronze statues and marble columns, fountains with mineral drinking water and leather sofas - so today look Gellert bathing. Prices for visiting the complex are quite high, but we'll talk about this a little later.

Saunas and swimming pools

Sources of Mount Gellert provide baths with mineral water. Its temperature ranges from +19 ° C to +43 ° C. Water is used to treat many serious ailments.

To date, Gellert's bathhouses have twelve swimming pools. Two of them are in the open air, and the rest are in the room. Among them, it should be noted:

• Pool with waves (open) area of five hundred square meters (+26 ° C);
• Sitting pool (open) with an area of sixty square meters (+ 36 ° C);
• With hydromassage, an area of more than two hundred square meters (+26 ° C);
• Medical thermal pools (+36 and + 38 ° C);
• With underwater stretching (+35 ° C);
• Sedentary internal pool (+26 ° C);
• Cooling (+19 ° C);
• Adventure pool (+ 36 ° C);
• Children's (+30 ° C).

The services

A wide range of SPA services and balneotherapy offers visitors a Gellert bath. It:

• Carbonic baths to mud treatment;
• Salt chambers;
• Pearl baths ;
• electrotherapy;
• Different types of massage (refreshing, therapeutic, hot stones, Thai, aroma massage and others).

To whom is bathing visited?

The mineral waters of Gellert contain calcium, sodium, magnesium, silicon and methaboric acid. Doctors recommend treatment for patients with diseases:

• The spine;
• Joints;
• With changes in intervertebral discs;
• With post-traumatic disorders;
• With narrowing of the vessels;
• With changes in the nervous system;
• With circulatory disorders.

Paired

Such a number of paired, concentrated in one place, it is rather difficult to imagine. It is a Turkish and "gas" bath, with herbs and mud poultices. Here you can have a session of water massage: radiation and jet, refreshing and in warm water (according to the method of watsu), classical medicinal and aromatic. All of them work miracles, helping the tired body. For the treatment of respiratory diseases, an inhalator is provided.

The rules of visiting the Gellert Bath (Budapest)

The first thing you need to buy a ticket at the ticket office complex. Together with him, the visitor receives a plastic bracelet, which is a kind of pass for the passage through the turnstile.

Changing rooms are divided into women's and men's. They have a row of lockers for clothes and benches. The lockers are all very similar in appearance, and if suddenly you forget which one is yours, it's enough to pass along the rows with your bracelet - your locker will "respond." If you do not want to change in a common room, buy a ticket with a booth. In this case, no one will embarrass you.

In good weather (especially in the summer), most visitors prefer to spend time at outdoor pools with waves. The mechanism that creates them, include every hour for ten minutes. On the open part of the pool there is a cafe where you can enjoy fragrant coffee or try freshly squeezed juice.

Most pools are allowed to be visited only with a rubber cap, which can be purchased (or rented) here. Visitors must leave the pools 15 minutes before the closure of the complex.

Gellert's Baths are open for visits throughout the year. In winter, there is a swimming pool under the open air, located next to the sauna house.

Interesting Facts

For its long history, Gellert's baths were closed only once - because of the rupture of the pipe.

This complex is often chosen for the shooting of famous directors. Here, such films as "Battery" by Jan Sverack, "Cremaster" Matthew Barney and others were shot. Kinds of bathing can be seen in the film of German cinematographers (1936) "Wo die Lerche singt", during the performance by Marta Eggert of the legendary composition "On the beautiful blue Danube".

In 1934, Budapest received the Thioul Spa City. Gellert's bathhouses became the owner of the grand prix of national products in 2013.

Gellért (bath) price per visit

We draw your attention to the fact that the price of the entrance ticket varies on weekdays and weekends. In addition, the cost depends on where you prefer to change clothes (a general locker room or a separate cabin). Below we will quote the cost of tickets, which is indicated in Forints (the national currency of Hungary) :

• For an adult on a weekday - 4,900;
• At the weekend an adult ticket (with a locker) costs 5,100;
• With a cabin on weekdays - 5 300;
• With a cabin on weekends - 5 500.

Children under two years of age visit the complex for free.

On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 11:00 to 15:00 in the baths, sightseeing tours are conducted. The ticket costs 2 000 HUF. Payment for all services is allowed in cash or by bank card.

How to get there?

Many Russians have already visited Gellert (bathhouse). How to get here? You can take the metro line M4 (green). You should go to Szent Gellerttrr station; The trams will take you to the complex from any district of the city - No. 56A, No. 56, No. 18, No. 4 9, No. 19, No. 41, No. 47. Your stop is Szent Gellertter.

Reviews of holidaymakers

Many holidaymakers say that they were very impressed by the Gellert bathhouse. The reviews of many guests show that in comparison with another famous complex located in Budapest - Szechenyi, Gellert has more exquisite and expensive interiors, the premises are much more spacious and fewer visitors.

Most vacationers are sure that this is the best complex in Budapest. The interiors of the baths are fascinating, and the sensations from the reception of the thermal baths are unforgettable. However, there are also negative reviews. Among the shortcomings most often mentioned is the payment of a deposit by card, and a refund in cash. Some guests did not like the complex passage system in the baths. To the lockers you need to go in street shoes and clothes. In addition, the keys are often not numbered, in many lockers do not work locks.

But still, the overwhelming majority of visitors consider such defects as trivialities in comparison with the magnificent effect of treatment, excellent rest, a lot of positive emotions from staying in a luxurious complex. The staff of the baths are trying to make the rest of the guests pleasant and memorable. And many more note the very friendly attitude of local residents. They are happy to talk about their hometown and are invited to come more often.