The wall of thanksgiving plaques
Dozens of marble tablets in various languages hung by patients cured here over more than a century — the strangest and most honest thing about the place.
kallerna — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Illustratedjc — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Illustratedjc — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Illustratedjc — CC BY-SA 4.0
Not instead of it on a short first visit — Széchenyi is the iconic experience. But if you are in Budapest four days or more, or want a bath with no crowd at half the price, Lukács is much the better option.
Yes, mixed, with swimsuits worn throughout. Changing areas are separate and private cabins are available for a small fee. The atmosphere is practical and quiet rather than recreational — no parties, no loud music.
An old custom: patients who came for the spring-water treatment and felt better hung tablets of thanks on the courtyard wall. They are in many languages and span more than a century — an unofficial record of the place's therapeutic reputation.
Margaret Island is minutes south and Gül Baba's tomb is on the slope behind — the three make a quiet afternoon in northern Buda, well off the visitor routes.
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The Lukács Baths are the bath Budapest itself uses. No tour coaches, no queues, no doubled prices — a working therapeutic complex on the Buda bank north of Margaret Bridge, which people attend on a doctor's referral more often than for photographs. The site has a long history: its springs were used in the Middle Ages, the Ottomans built a bath here during their rule in Buda, and the present complex went up in the 19th century and expanded later. In its courtyard is an unusual wall: dozens of marble plaques in different languages, hung by patients cured here across more than a century — from Hungary, Austria, Germany and further afield. The water is rich in calcium, magnesium and sulphates and is used to treat joint and spinal complaints, which is why the complex holds therapeutic departments alongside its swimming pools, thermal basins and saunas. This is not the most beautiful of the baths — Széchenyi and Gellért are far grander — but it is the quietest, the cheapest and the most honest. If you are in Budapest for more than three days and want the bath experience as residents live it rather than as it is sold to visitors, this is the place.
Dozens of marble tablets in various languages hung by patients cured here over more than a century — the strangest and most honest thing about the place.
Thermal basins in a tree-shaded courtyard with no crush — sitting in them in winter is Széchenyi without its prices or its numbers.
You will likely be the only foreign visitor in the pool — which is exactly the reason to come.
On the Buda bank north of Margaret Bridge, minutes from the island and from Gül Baba's tomb.
Frankel Leó út 25-29, Buda 1023