Thermes de Sovata

Thermes de Sovata is built around the extraordinary heliothermal salt lakes of Sovata in the Mures county of Transylvania, where the most famous of the five lakes, Lacul Ursu Bear Lake, achieves a temperature of 56 degrees Celsius at a depth of 1.5 metres through the heliothermal effect, a phenomenon in which a surface layer of dilute brackish water acts as a solar greenhouse trapping the heat of sunlight in the denser hypersaline brine below, creating a naturally heated bath unique among salt lakes in Europe. The chlorurated brines of the Sovata lakes, which range in colour from clear to green, blue, and russet depending on the algae and mineral content of each basin, have been part of the bathing tradition since the lakes were first systematically developed for health tourism in the late nineteenth century by the Szekely Hungarian community of Transylvania. Sovata sits in the heart of the Szekely Land, the Hungarian-speaking region of central Romania where a distinct cultural identity expressed in carved wooden gates, Catholic churches, and Szekler cuisine has been maintained across centuries of Romanian, Habsburg, and communist rule.