Hévízi Tófürdő

Hévízi Tófürdő, the Hévíz Lake Bath, is a bathhouse built on stilts over the thermal lake at Hévíz in western Hungary, near the western end of Lake Balaton. The lake covers 4.4 hectares above a spring cave 38 metres down, and lies in a wooded park of 33.9 hectares that keeps off the wind.

The water

Springs deliver 410 litres a second and the lake renews itself every three days. Warmed geothermally, it stays at 22 °C or more in winter and reaches 35–38 °C in summer, so open-air bathing goes on all year. The operator describes the water as carbonic, sulphurous, calcium, magnesium and hydrogen-carbonate, with a mild radon emanation, and names sulphur as the main active agent of both water and mud. The peat mud on the bed holds radium salts and reduced sulphur compounds.

Treatment

The stated indications are rheumatic conditions, osteoporosis, degenerative disease of the spine and joints, ankylosing spondylitis, chronic inflammatory joint disease, aftercare of injuries and orthopaedic surgery, soft-tissue rheumatism and chronic gynaecological conditions. Contraindications include infectious disease, malignancy, heart failure, circulatory disorders, thrombosis, asthma, high blood pressure and pregnancy. St Andrew's rheumatology hospital works alongside the bath.

Bathing

The house advice is 20 to 30 minutes in the water at a time, with rests of at least half an hour, and one to one and a half hours a day in all; without medical advice, thirty minutes. Children under twelve are advised not to bathe in the lake and have a tempered pool with a children's zone on the shore.