Széchenyi Thermal Bath
Why is it significant?
Walk up to the yellow facade with its green copper domes and listen. Behind the walls you will hear splashing, laughter, the hiss of jets... and, if you go in, you will see men up to their chests in steaming water, bent over floating chessboards as if nothing in the world mattered more than the…
Key Facts
| Place | Széchenyi Thermal Bath |
|---|---|
| Address | Állatkerti körút 9-11, 1146 Budapest, Hungary |
| Geo Coordinates | 47.51840, 19.08250 |
| Part of Walk | Budapest's Musical Boulevard: Andrássy Avenue from the Opera to Heroes' Square |
| Generated | Generated |
Walk up to the yellow facade with its green copper domes and listen. Behind the walls you will hear splashing, laughter, the hiss of jets... and, if you go in, you will see men up to their chests in steaming water, bent over floating chessboards as if nothing in the world mattered more than the next move.
The Széchenyi Thermal Bath opened in 1913, built to plans by Győző Czigler, who died before construction started, so others completed his design. The outdoor pools were added in the 1920s. It is one of the largest bath complexes in Europe, with more than a dozen pools, and it bears the name of Count István Széchenyi, the reformer whose Chain Bridge became the first permanent bridge between Buda and Pest.
The water comes from deep below. In the 1870s the engineer Vilmos Zsigmondy drilled a well in City Park nearly a kilometre deep, and hot water burst out. A second, even deeper well was drilled in the 1930s. The water emerges at over seventy degrees and must be cooled before anyone can sit in it, and it is full of calcium, magnesium and the minerals that Hungarian doctors have prescribed for generations.
The chess players are a living institution. Some have come for decades, at the same time, to the same corner of the pool, with their own boards. Tourists photograph them; they ignore the tourists. Budapest has well over a hundred thermal springs, and it is no accident that the city calls itself a city of spas.
So here you are, at the end of the avenue. You started at the Opera, where Mahler fought for Hungarian singing, passed Liszt's academy and his last home, the dark address at number 60, Kodály's circle, the little yellow underground, the heroes and the angel, and the new house of music among the trees. Andrássy út was built as a straight line from the city's heart to its playground. Now do what the people of Budapest have done for over a century at this point... take off your shoes and step into warm water.