Gellért

Thermal Baths & Budapest Spa Culture

Course 1 · Chapter 5 · Gellért: Art Nouveau on the Danube

Where Széchenyi is a Neo-Baroque palace in a park, the Gellért is an Art Nouveau (Secession) hotel and bath standing at the foot of Gellért Hill beside the Liberty Bridge. It is the most decorated of the city's baths, with mosaics, columns, stained glass and a ceiling-high wave pool hall. This chapter covers the springs, the building, its wartime damage and rebuilding, and its present life as part of a hotel. Names, dates and figures are from general knowledge and flagged for checking. Nothing here is medical advice.

The Springs of Gellért Hill

The hill above the bath is named after Saint Gellért (Gerard), the eleventh-century bishop who, according to tradition, was killed there (check the legend). Springs rise at its foot, and bathing has been recorded there for centuries, including in the Ottoman period at the nearby Rác and Rudas baths (see Chapter 2 and check). Earlier bath buildings on the site were demolished to make way for the new complex.

The Building

The hotel-and-bath complex was designed by Ármin Hegedűs, Artúr Sebestyén and Izidor Sterk, and built in the early twentieth century, opening in 1918 (check the architects and the year). The date is notable: the building was completed in the last months of the First World War, and soon after, the country's borders and fortunes changed (check). It is in a late Art Nouveau style with Baroque touches. See Hungarian Architecture for the style and the other Secession buildings of the city.

The indoor thermal bath

A grand hall with columns, mosaics and a high glazed roof, with pools of different temperatures at either end (check the layout).

The swimming hall

An indoor swimming pool ringed by galleries and decoration, the best known room in the complex (check).

The wave pool

An outdoor pool that produces artificial waves at set times, a feature that dates from the early period (check the history and whether it runs).

The hotel

A grand hotel attached to the bath, with its own entrance and guests' access to the baths (check the arrangement).

Damage and Rebuilding

The complex was heavily damaged during the Second World War, especially in the siege of Budapest in 1944 and 1945 (check the extent). It was repaired and reopened in stages after the war, and later restored in several rounds, with details changing in each (check the dates). The result is a building that looks original but has layers of repair, a theme from Chapter 2.

A British comparison Compare the Art Nouveau Gellért with the Victorian Turkish baths in Harrogate or the Art Deco lido at Saltdean (check the examples). Each reflects the style of its time, but the Gellért is unusual in being a working thermal bath inside an operating grand hotel.

The Danubius Era

The hotel and bath are now part of the Danubius group of hotels (check the ownership and the status of the baths, which have had separate owners or operators at different times). Hotel guests have traditionally had access to the baths, and day visitors can buy tickets. Operations, ownership and renovation plans have changed over the years, so current arrangements need checking.

A Personal Note

Staying at the Gellért The author stays at the Danubius Gellért when visiting Budapest, so this is a regular guest's view, not a neutral one. What stands out to a guest is the setting, the sense of a grand early twentieth-century building still in everyday use, and the access to the thermal baths from the hotel. Readers should expect different experiences, and should check the current state of the hotel and baths, which have been renovated more than once.

What the Gellért Shows

  • Health, habit and social life. It combines all three of the course's lenses in one building, with a hotel guest's rest cure, a local's regular swim and a visitor's sightseeing.
  • Conservation. Keeping a decorated early twentieth-century building working as a bath is expensive and slow, a pressure discussed in Chapter 10.
  • Style. A reminder that a bath is also a work of architecture and decoration, which is why it appears in Hungarian Architecture too.
Check the details Architects, opening year, wartime damage, the wave pool, the ownership arrangements and what is open at present are easy to misstate and change often. Verify before quoting or planning a visit.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Describe the Gellért complex and say how its style differs from Széchenyi.

→ Solution
Exercise 2

Explain what happened to the building in the twentieth century and what that means for how "original" it is.

→ Solution
Exercise 3

Think of a hotel or spa you have visited and say how it combines health, habit and social life, as the Gellért does.

→ Solution

Quick Reference

  • Location: foot of Gellért Hill, beside Liberty Bridge
  • Style: Art Nouveau (Secession), opened 1918 (check)
  • Rooms: thermal hall, swimming hall, wave pool, hotel
  • History: damaged in the Second World War, restored in stages (check)
  • Today: Danubius hotel with baths (check the arrangement)