Budapest Guide
Gellért-hegy and the Tabán
The Rudas Baths
The relaxing and curative effects of Buda's mineral springs have been appreciated for two thousand years. The Romans built splendid bathhouses at Aquincum and, while these declined with their empire, interest in bathing revived after the Knights of St John built a hospice on the site of the present Rudas Baths, near where St Elizabeth cured lepers in the springs below Gellért-hegy. However, it was the Turks who consolidated the habit of bathing (as Muslims, they were obliged to wash five times daily in preparation for prayer) and constructed proper bathhouses which function to this day – though their surroundings and exteriors give little clue to what's inside.
The Rudas Baths (Rudas Gyógyfürdő), in the shadow of Gellért-hegy, harbour a fantastic octagonal pool constructed in 1556 on the orders of Pasha Sokoli Mustapha. Bathers wallow amid shafts of light pouring in from the star-shaped apertures in the domed ceiling, surrounded by stone pillars with iron tie-beams and a nest of smaller pools for parboiling oneself or cooling down.