Spa Culture

The baths are also a place where people meet. This chapter looks at the social life of the baths: the chess players, the night-time party baths, the appearances of baths in books and films, the other spa towns of Hungary, and comparisons with the British tradition. It is the "social life" lens of Chapter 1 at full length. Names, dates and details are from general knowledge and flagged for checking. Nothing here is medical advice.

The Chess Players

The men playing chess on floating boards in the warm outdoor pool at Széchenyi (Chapter 4) are among the best-known images of the city. Chess has a strong place in Hungarian culture (check the history of chess in Hungary), and the habit of playing in the water is a local one, now watched by visitors. It shows several things at once: regulars with their own corner of the pool, a game that suits slow, relaxed time, and a custom that has become an attraction, which brings both interest and intrusion (check how regulars feel about visitors).

The Party Baths

In the last few decades some baths have held evening events with music, lighting and drinks in the pools, often known as "sparties" (check the origin of the word and how widely it is used). They draw young visitors and tourists and are a significant source of income (check). They are also controversial: some residents and regular bathers see them as a departure from the bath's character, while operators and visitors see them as a way to support the buildings and make them lively (check the debate). The course describes both views and takes no side. See Chapter 10 for the pressures on the baths.

Baths in Literature and Film

Baths appear in Hungarian writing and in films shot in the city, from early twentieth-century novels to international productions that use the Gellért and Széchenyi as settings (check the examples, since I am not sure of specific titles). Their appearance in stories shows how deeply they sit in the city's image: a place of leisure, intrigue, rest and class mixing. See Hungarian Literature and Hungarian Film & Television for the wider context.

Other Spa Towns

Budapest is not the only Hungarian place of thermal bathing. Others include (check each):

• Hévíz. A town beside a large thermal lake, which is often said to be among the largest of its kind in Europe, used for bathing all year (check).
• Hajdúszoboszló. A spa town in the east with a large bathing complex, popular with Hungarian families (check).
• Eger. A baroque town in the north with thermal baths and a Turkish bath dating from the Ottoman period (check; see Chapter 2).
• Others. Many towns have a thermal bath, often built because a borehole for oil or gas found hot water instead (check this common story).

These places show that bathing is a national habit, not a Budapest speciality. The Hungarian holiday of a week at a spa is a long-standing custom (check).

Comparisons: Scotland and Bath

Exercises