Hipócrates, the father of the medicine was the first one that said "the nature cures the illness". The Nature has been truly generous with Hungary, country with one of the widest selections in thermal and medicinal waters of Europe. The Hungarian thermal culture has over 2000 years history. Fresh, mosaics and findings of houses of Baths are the testimony of the fact that the Romans discovered and enjoyed these springs.

The 1300 thermal springs at the present registered, almost 300 are used as baths and one in ten pertaining to the capital. That means that there are 130 mineral and medicinal springs in Budapest. Which is the difference among mineral and medicinal? . Medicinal water it is a mineral water in which medical experiments have demonstrated that it has healing effects.

Most of the medicinal waters are effective in the treatment of the motion illnesses and there are some that help in gynecological problems, illnesses of the skin or, in the modality of cures by drinking, stomach illnesses and kidney disorders.

Experienced doctors' groups of high professional level are trained to take cares of the guests in the medicinal baths, sanatoriums, spas and hotels with centres of health that have been built around the springs. The treatments are personalized and combined offers are made after a preliminary consultation which establish the physical condition of the persona.The variations of the treatments are virtually limitless.

We recommend the caves for the treatment of breathing problems ; the effectiveness of the treatments is due to clean air and its great humedad. The most popular cave is that of Josvafo in the National Park of Aggtelek. The place is the an Human Patrimony.

A particular specialty in the northern part of Hungary is gas escape in the land surface(a moffette) that exhaust gases containing dioxide of carbon used with curative purposes. This is a dry bath recommended for those that have heart problems or circulatory, high tension and skin illnesses.

If you want to rest, to recover or to rejuvenate a little, or need be pampered, no doubs,trip to Hungary, country of the Spas & Health Centres.

Hungary, with its foundations, human and material resources, is the perfect place for this reason, the Year 2003 has been denominated the Year of the Tourism of Health. Let it to be as well the year of health for you. Choose among the variety of offers, recharge your batteries and have a good time. Here there is good health for you.

Thermal Baths

To choose an SPA or thermal centre in Hungary is only a matter of likins; there are spas nationwide and they are of every styles. Anyway it is always an unforgettable and indispensable experience. It is one of the healthiest pleasures in the water culture.

During the "belle epoque" and along the whole XX century, the Hungarian spas were the wanted attraction among the high classes that made of the rite of "to take the waters" a singular social act. The mythical spa of Gellért, the better known one and the most beautiful, located in the heart of Budapest, counted among its illustrious guests characters as Visconti, Arthur Rubinstein, Richard Nixon, Raquel Welch, the Sha of Persina or the queen Juliana of Holland who spents here the night of weddings in 1937. All they enjoyed the caresses of these waters.

However far from being considered as elite places, the spas are highly popular among all the social classes. The régime pro-soviétic that governed the country during forty years in the second half of the last century, gave a great impulse to the construction of thermal stations. Of the total 450, at the present existing, buildings suitable to take the baths, a third was built in this period.

The Turks, very fond of the baths, transformed the visit to these thermal centres into an authentic social rite and they were those that start the massive construction all over Hungary. Between 1541 and 1686 were built at least a dozen of spas, according to the purest Ottoman style, with copper domes, beautiful mosaics and the characteristic one finishes off of the stocking moon in the top high. The turkish Thermal Baths Király, is one of the oldest in Europe.

We should visit some of the most central of Budapest like the spa of Széchenyi, the bigger of Europe. The interior or exterior pools can be used by both sexes, at the same time. The rooms of steam baths are different for men or women and, frequentlly, they are to stay in, totally naked.

As for the people not familiarized with the thermal culture, there are also some curious scenes: nudes men or women, conversing in relaxing way, playing chess or making gymnastic exercises.

There are not fixed norms when going to the spas although it is useful to be informed of the schedules of opening, since some close on Sundays and others open up certain days for men and other days only for women.

The treatment can begin with a shower, followed by a dry sauna or an steam bath to open the pores of the skin so that the effects of the waters are intense. There are pools with waters of different temperatures, ranging from 30 to 40 degrees, although in some cases the temperature to which the thermal water spring up, reach 72ş Centigrades and should be cooled.

The hot baths can be combined with others in waters to 25 or 26 degrees of refreshing effects. After a good while in the warm waters, the body is in good disposition to receive the massage. The pools with the temperature of the body, about 36 degrees, are the most appropriate to remain long while talking or contemplating the sunbeams filtering throught the colored glasses of the domes. An spectacle that, in addition of the water temperature, contributes to the relaxation.

TOURISM OF HEALTH

The better known centre of Tourism of Health in the entire Europe is Héviz, located in the proximities of the Balatón Lake. Here is Heviz, the biggest lake of hot waters of Europe. In winter is covered with a cloud of vapour, and whose bottom possesses a layer of medicinal mud of several metres thickness. The forest all around the lake guarantees an unique microclimate in the surroundings.

In Héviz, to carry out the treatment of the rheumatic illnesses and of the locomotive apparatus, they create first an spa-sanatorium and then a winter spa. They have built ten hotels where the travelers will be welcome and they will be able to take care of their health with the most advanced therapies, and keep themselves in form by choosing among the several fitness programs.

Balatonfüred is also a Tourism Health's Center known outside of the country. Applying the newest cardiology diagnoses and therapeutic methods, under medical direction of cardiologists, more than a hundred technical gymnastics monitors, dietary and therapeutic masseurs help to the reestablishment and improvement of quality of the patients' life.

The waters of the thermal city of Harkány, located in the southern part of the country, are recomended for the treatment of the rheumatic illnesses, the rehabilitations after the accidents and for the treatment of the psoriasis. In the medicinal spa of the city that is located amid a gigantic park, is available a wide offer that it includes massages, electrotherapy, corrective gymnastics, pool, sauna and solarium.

The medicinal spa that is amid a wonderful environment in Debrecen, rich city in monuments and museum, offers a wide scale of services: an complete medical attention, baths with weights, with salt and carbonated, treatments of medicinal mud, massage ofsubaquatic jet and gymnastics correctiva.

The spa of Hajdúszoboszló more than 70 years of antiquity, it is fed by thermal springs at 75şC., and the surface of water of their 22 pools equivalent to 10 thousand square metres. The doctors observe around a ninety percent of improvement in patients arrived to undergo cures fundamentally in acute pathologies of the locomotive apparatus, dermatológics and ginecológics. The microclimate, peculiar of the place, contributes certainly to these outstanding results.

The guests of Balf and Gyula they can be treated in the beautiful parks of these two buildings. The medicinal waters of the Spa of the Castle of Gyula are specially suitable to alleviate pains caused by the inflammatory affections, the rehabilitation after the heart infarct, as well as to improve the kinetic functions. The waters of Balf are applied in the treatment of the illnesses of the digestive apparatus, articulations and the nervous system, as well as in cases of mental exhaustion.

In Zalakaros, in the Medicinal Spa of Gránit, are offered diverse types of services of aquatic therapy, among them electrotherapy, massages and baths with weights. In the MenDan Thermal Hotel, built recently, there are also possibilities to receive treatments with medicinal waters, rest to improve programmed physical conditions of fitness.

A great part of the population of the city of Sárvár that is only 30 kilometers away from the austrian border, have its economic based in the Tourism of Health. The spa of Sárvár is united to a lake perfect to do boat´s trips and a tennis court while in the Danubius Thermal Hotel lodge not only those that come to undergo some treatment, but the lovers of the nature, the leisure, the sports and the well-being.

Several treatments are offered in the Medicinal Spa of Bük that has many pools, located to the foot of the Alps, amid a park of 13 hectares, although the truly remarkable thing is the Danubius Thermal & Spothotel Bük that offers an great variety of rehabilitation ways and relaxation. Next to the tennis court, the cycling, the collective gymnastics and the jogging, its golf field invites the guests to make an outdoors and active life.

MORE INFORMATION
National Tourism Office of Hungary in Spain
http://www.hungriaturismo.com