Steamed Up – The Ottomans in Budapest

Two things that make Budapest a destination with a difference are the coffee houses and the thermal baths. However, though the inventive Magyar can claim many things (Vitamin C, Rubik’s cube and the hydrogen bomb amongst others) as their idea, these two tourist attractions most associated with Budapest can both be attributed to the Ottoman Empire. 

However, if you were taught history in a Hungarian school, that’s probably not the way the Turks were depicted. "Decades of disinformation have told only negative aspects of the Ottoman occupation," said Victoria Hill, a dynamic American businesswoman who lives in Hungary and is determined to save the crumbling Turkish baths in Hungary’s capital and see them find their rightful place on the Unesco World Heritage list of outstanding natural and man-made treasures. 

Hill has formed the tentatively titled Friends of the Baths, a cultural group which will meet regularly for lectures and discussions on Ottoman culture and its previously neglected influence on Hungarian life 

"The widely-held belief that Hungary languished for a century and a half during the Ottoman occupation is simply not true," said Hill. There was a thriving economy in Buda during the time, primarily due to its position on the caravan route. 

 Buda, with its remaining architecture and thermal baths offers, a flashback to Ottoman times. Hill hopes that this small collection of living, breathing monuments will be preserved for the enjoyment and fascination of generations to come. 

 The first meeting of the Friends was held in the wine cellar of the Gundel restaurant. "It is difficult to get the Government or the city interested after more than 50 years of de-emphasised, dis-education about foreign cultures. However,from my experience I have found that Hungarians are always interested in their history," said Hill. "This is a part of the cultural heritage of Hungary that has been ignored or neglected." 

 At the initial meeting, Hill gave an overview of the Ottoman Empire which lasted from 1302 to 1924. "The Ottomans are very important to us in the West because they created forms of state administration; the ways in which they operated created the threads for democracy now," said Hill. 

 She illustrated her fascinating talk with slides showing maps, exquisite tiles and paintings which captured the moment as accurately as a camera. There were pictures from the preparation for a circumcision of Mehmed in 1582, when the celebration lasted 52 nights and 52 days, and wrestling performances and tightrope walking revealed in miniature books which acted as a newsreel of the time. A map of the Ottoman Empire at its height showed the rich trade routes and the extent of the power, north to Buda and Vienna, east to Persia and Georgia, south towards Saudi Arabia. Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent brought the Empire to its zenith. As the fourth Ottoman sultan, he presided over the most powerful state in the world, from 1520 to 1566. He was a cunning military strategist and more than doubled the territory inherited from his father. He built elegant mosques, baths, schools, fountains and gardens. Few people know that Süleyman the Magnificent died on Hungarian soil on the way to the attack on Vienna. 

Buda was once home to 26 mosques. Today only the baths remain from Buda’s imarets (inns or hospices). Situated from south to north along the Danube these are the Rudas, pictured right, Rác, Király, Lukács and Császár baths.

In addition to the baths there are two other Ottoman architectural relics that still exist in Buda: The Malomtó gunpowder mill and the Gül Baba Tomb. Only the outer structure of the earlier building at the Malomtó remains. The Gül Baba Tomb, however was completely renovated in 1962 and is preserved as a gift of the Turkish government. 

The first baths on the site of the Rudas date from the late 14th century. The exact date isn’t known, although renovation and expansion work was carried out in 1566. The new building was constructed by the Pasha of Buda in the 16th century and his plaque remains in the main chamber. The original cupola, vaulted corridor and main octagonal pool remain, although heavily restored. 

There are several reasons to believe that this work might have been carried out by Sinan, a Greek architect and contemporary of Michelangelo who designed 30 mosques and lived to the age of 99. He was a maths genius who revolutionized Muslim architecture and created incredible, huge domes. Sinan was the royal architect at the time when Süleyman the Magnificent died. 

The size of the Rudas cupola is unique. It is the largest in Europe and only two of its size exist in Turkey. The type of pillar used in the steam room of the Rudas matches Sinan’s style of work. He was also working on an aqueduct in Belgrade in 1565, only one year before the Rudas reconstruction, and it would have certainly been a much shorter trip to Buda than to travel back to Istanbul. During the 1500s, the Rudas also housed either a Tekke (lodge) or a zaviye (hostel for travellers) run by Dervish monks. Only the ground floor of the former three-story building remains. Bombing during the Second World War destroyed the upper two stories. There has never been sufficient funding to fully restore the building. 

 Hill estimates that between $8 and $15 million are needed to renovate the Rudas Baths. "It has not been touched since 1945 and is waiting for an investor like the Rác has found in Miklós Bornemisza’s Rác Nosztalgia Kft, who plan to enlarge the bath territory, build a hotel and restaurant complex and even create a chair lift leading from the Rác up to the top of Gellért Hill," said Hill. 

The Rác Baths were originally built during the time of King Mátyás. It is believed that an underground passageway connected the baths to the Royal Gardens in the southwest side of the Castle. Later in the 16th century, the Ottomans added the cupola that remains to this day.



 The Király Baths are in a small, beautiful building which possibly predates the work of Sinan. Prior to Sinan, domes or cupolas were placed on top of the outer walls of a building or on broad, squat pillars. Sinan introduced large, graceful cupolas that rested on narrow, towering pillars, but the Király reflects the former style. It has retained more of its original Turkish character than any of the other Buda baths. The Király is also unique because it does not have its own well. Water for the Király is carried via a larchwood conduit system from the Lukács wells. Construction of the Turkish part began in 1566 and was completed by Pasha Sokoli Mustapha in 1570. 

 "The Király Baths also need a great deal of work as it may be sinking on Fô utca. The small volume of water flowing into the Király Baths dictates that the number of customers will never make it profitable, neither is the Rudas. The city operates the Rudas at a loss. But the Pepsi bottling plant is a tenant so there is money flowing in. There is also a day hospital at the Rudas which provides another source of income," said Hill. 

The Császár Baths are among the oldest thermal baths in Buda, having been known in Roman times. In 1178, the Knights Templar of St John established a settlement at the site of the two baths. The Knights built a monastery, church, hospital and bath at each of the two sites. During the time of the Ottomans, the baths were extremely popular and renovated by Buda Pasha Sokollu Mustafa in 1571-72. 

The Rudas and Király are both national monuments. In 1987, the Cultural Ministry planned to register with the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) proposing that the Turkish baths be proposed for inclusion on the World Heritage List. However, in 1989 the Cultural Ministry was split and the plan seems to have fallen by the wayside. 

Hill’s goal is to create a Friends of the Baths movement and show City Hall and the Government that a non-profit or charity organisation can help. 
 First published in The Budapest Sun, 21 March 2002

Budapest's Szent Lukács gyógyfürdô & uszoda

©LRMallowsLukacsBp2007

The Szent Lukács gyógyfürdô

The Szent Lukács gyógyfürdô is the most beautiful medicinal thermal bath complex in Budapest.
The Széchenyi has history and all the chess-playing bácsis (crusty old uncles) for the tourists, the Gellért has fin-de-siecle glamour and that wave pool (keep away from the wandering hands of crusty old uncles here!) and the Király and Rudas have their daring, quasi homo-erotic, steamy sense of danger (after all, think of all those verrucas you could catch).
The frumpy old Lukács isn’t a tourist destination, it’s a place for locals to kick off their papucs (slippers), soak their creaking joints and have a right old gossip within the crumbling, yellowing Baroque walls of the most atmospheric spa facilities in Central Europe.
The medicinal thermal bath recently opened its doors to show off a brand new ivócsarnok - drinking hall, where visitors can buy a korsó (half-litre stein) of mineral and salt-rich water to refresh their palates and help them live longer.
The building resembles a Greek temple and in pride of place is a pink marble fountain, from where gushes forth water, strangely labelled ‘not drinking water’.
However, to the right is a dark grey marble basin and patrons can fill up jugs from a golden dragon tap.
For five forints you can drink a korsó, filled with the warm, slightly eggy-tasting water and go away feeling you have done something good for your system.
Half a litre is considered the optimum daily intake, needed for the minerals and salts to be effective.
‘Budapest is really the capital of spas, and we hope the Szent Lukács will be a symbol of better times’, said Budapest deputy mayor Pál Vajda at the opening.
Renovation started in November 1997, at a cost of Ft25 million, mainly financed by revenue from tourism.
Gábor Horváth, CEO of Budapest's Thermal Baths and Spas Rt said the drinking hall was originally opened in 1937 when the first conference of the International Bathing Association was held in Budapest, acknowledging the thermal bath potential of the Hungarian capital. ‘This was really a peak in Budapest thermal bath life’, said Horváth.
However, since the turn of the century, thermal water has been bottled in green glass bottles and distributed around the world.
By the time the drinking hall was opened, more that five million bottles per year were being produced and exported to many counties around the world. Szent Lukács water can be bought in Buenos Aires, Mexico, Hong Kong and Sydney.
The bath suffered severe damage during the Second World War and a lack of funds prevented refurbishment.
Now the hall has been reconstructed according to original plans, ‘and there will be more opportunities to drink the healthy water on the spot’, said Horváth.
The Lukács thermal water contains calcium, magnesium and hydrogen carbonate, a significant amount of fluoride and the eggy, sulphurous compounds.
Drinking the water is good for stomach and intestinal problems, gallbladder, kidney stones and lung airway disorders.
Bathing in the water, in one of the many facilities: mud baths, medicinal weight baths, underwater jet stream massage or just relaxing in the warm water is effective in the treatment of degenerative joint diseases, spinal problems or for rehabilitation treatment after an accident.
If you go further into the main courtyard of Szent Lukács, you are confronted with what must be the most beautiful courtyard in a city blessed with many stunning courtyards.
The crumbling, yellow Baroque walls surround a shaded place where tall century-old maples rise up through the tiles and succulent lilies create an oasis of cool calm health and relaxation.
On the walls, stone tablets thank the saint in many languages.
‘Stubborn lumbago tortured me for years, Saint Lukács cured me immediately’, wrote Benô Sághy in 1899.
There is a tablet in Serbian deciated by Militsza Jankovitseva in 1906, one from Viennese Carl Horak in 1902, and one offering thanks from a Romanian lawyer Petru Caliunariu.
The earliest appears to be from 1898.
When it opened in 1894, the Szent Lukács was the biggest at 1,800m2, and the most popular spa in Budapest.
Besides those coming for cures, the Szent Lukács was also a favourite wallowing hole for writers and artists and it still remains popular in literary circles.
It was an informal literary salon, more recently with a dissident flavor from the 1950’s to the mid-1980’s.
The stone sunbathing terrace on top of the building is particularly atmospheric.
During the Turkish occupation, the Lukács territory held a four-towered castle which had been adapted into a medieval gunpowder mill.
The Turks called it Barutháné and the Buda Pasha Arszlan redecorated the building in 1565-66.
West of the mill building, a warm spring rose up from the hillside and the resulting millpond water drove the wheels to grind powder.
The building was also used in the manufacture of felt material, the mill still operated in the winter, because the warm water did not freeze over.
In the 1686 struggle to regain territory the place was returned unharmed to the possession of the Emperor, although they still used it as a gunpowder mill for long after.
Given the Turks’ fondness for hot baths, the hot waters surrounding the millpond were used for the creation of a pool, and in the vicinity of Barutháné were several other hot baths.
In the 1850's the Lukács baths functioned in the courtyard of the Emperor Mill ‘in whose tubs agricultural workers from the country bath as a curative method’, read a periodical of the time.
In 1863 the baths’ territory was enlarged, and in 1884 Rezsô Palotay bought the baths from the state treasury. The Emperor mill was demolished, one of the towers was used to build a new pool.
In 1893 Palotay took over the running of services in the Szent Lukács and built mud baths, steam baths, a sanatorium and swimming pools.
The Szent Lukács medicinal and thermal pool opened its doors to the public in 1894.
In 1946, the Lukács united with the Császár Baths, which has also reopened its pools and excellent sun-bathing terraces recently on the banks of the Danube.
Water of a temperature of 17 -65 degrees comes from natural sources and drilled wells.
The calcareous, hydrogen sulfuric water is good for rheumatics, muscle and nerve illnesses and joint. problems.
The Lukács is one of the few thermal baths in Budapest which offers mud treatments.
Trained attendants will slap on revitalizing mud, rich in minerals, salts and massage away you aches and illnesses as you sit among Budapest¹s literary society, who come here to gossip and heal.


Saint Lukács gyógyfürdô & uszoda (thermal 'health' bath & pool)
District II. Budapest,
Frankel Leó utca 25-29.
Tel 326-1695
www.lukacsfurdo.hu
Open daily 06.00—19.00
Day ticket with locker (2006) Ft1,500 – leave within 2hrs you get Ft400 back, within 2-3hrs Ft200
Day ticket with changing cabin (2006) Ft1,700 – leave within 2hrs you get Ft400 back, within 2-3hrs Ft200.
Hang on to your tickets!

Facilities include
Steam baths
Pool (06.00—19.00)
Underwater jetstream massage
Doctor's massage
Mud and weight baths

Drinking fountain ivókút open 06.00—18.00 Mon-Fri, 06.00—12.00 Sat/Sun.
You can drink korsós of healthy water full of minerals on the spot.
Half a liter costs Ft5…..yum, yum