Gellért Baths

Gellért Baths in Budapest, built between 1912 and 1918 in the Secession style at the foot of Gellért Hill on the Buda bank of the Danube, is one of the world's most architecturally magnificent thermal spas, whose majestic pillared main pool hall, ornate mosaic floors, stained glass windows, and dramatic outdoor wave pool represent the apogee of Central European thermal bath culture during the final flowering of the Habsburg Empire. The calcium and magnesium-rich thermal water rising at 44°C from deep Triassic limestone formations beneath Budapest feeds a complex of pools, steam rooms, mud baths, and treatment facilities that serve both Budapest's dedicated thermal bathing community and millions of international visitors each year who come to experience the combination of extraordinary architecture and genuine therapeutic mineral water at the heart of the world's spa capital. The Gellért Hotel above the baths, one of Budapest's most celebrated landmarks, makes this thermal complex a complete monument to the cultured Hungarian understanding of thermal bathing as both a medical discipline and a high civic art.