'OUR SPAS'
Theatrical, musical and literary life at the watering places in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy
July 23, 1998 – January 30, 1999

 

On May 4, 1900 in the palace of the famous music-hall, the ’Uránia Scientific Theatre’ – the one which still exists and is used as a movie theatre attracting thousands of people – a lecture was delivered by dr. Vilmos Hankó on the subject of ’our spas’. According to the customs of the age and the venue the lecture was accompanied with a slide show as well as a projection of a moving picture, the latest invention of the period. The excited audience could even see the undulating Lake Balaton, if only for a couple of seconds. On the lecture delivered on May 7, the audience was enticed by the pictures of the bubbling Hellmud in Kovászna (now Covasna, Romania), while on May 11 the rolling sea enchanted the audience. (The first, or at least one of the first brief motion pictures featuring famous actors was also shown here: Gyula Pekár's Dance). The world of Hungarian spas is greatly indebted to Hankó, since as a chemist – together with dr. Béla Lengyel and Sándor Kalecsinszky – he conducted the chemical analysis of the water of spas mainly in Transylvania. Furthermore, he was an author of several comprehensive books on Hungary's watering-places.

Initially, bathing establishment began to attract visitors who coming from the wealthier strata of society and wishing to find ways of relaxation started looking for meaningful ways of passing the time on rainy days. A temporary wooden theatre served this purpose well. Generally, staging plays in such venues were not for the demand of a highbrow audience, neither the directorate of a spa was urged by any sublime aim when they hired a troupe for a season. In this respect not even Balatonfüred – referred to as ’the ornament of Hungary’ – was an exception. Yet, the gem of the Hungarian bathing establishments occupied the noblest place in the history of the Hungarian theatre; since thanks to Sándor Kisfaludy and the lavish sums granted by the aristocrats visiting the place the first independent stone-theatre (second to the permanent theatre of Kolozsvár, now Cluj-Napoca, Romania) had been erected. On July 2, 1831 the theatre was opened to the public with the prologue entitled Nemzeti Ének (National Song) by Kisfaludy.

Renowned actors and actresses – among others József Szerdahelyi and Róza Déry-Széppataki – used to belong to the image of Füred. Especially two names were inseparably related to the place, that of Róza Laborfalvy and her husband, Mór Jókai. Curiously enough, Jókai – who gave such an artistic description of the winter sight of Lake Balaton in his novel entitled ’The Golden Man’ – had never actually seen it, according to Károly Eötvös’s remark.

In the early 1900s, on the other hand, we could have seen Lujza Blaha, the sweetest singer of the land, with her family on the balcony of her villa. (Now, the building is a restaurant.)

Photographer unknown, c. 1910
Lujza Blaha (right)

Besides spas at Lake Balaton and those in Upper Northern Hungary – Pöstyén, Stubnya, Trencsénteplic, Bártfafürdő – we have to mention another group of high-altitude bathing establishments located in the Tatra Mountains. These are Ó-, Új,- and Alsó-Tátrafüred, where the name – Füred – may not be derived from the word bathing (fürdés in Hungarian) but rather from the word ’quail’ (meaning fürj, fürjes).

The mountain springs of the neighbourhood of Szováta (now Sovata, Romania) also provided excellent drinking water. It was Mari Jászai, who had used every effort to have an ornamental fountain erected over one of them. Jászai's stay can be proved with a handwritten playbill: in this amateur performance both Jászai and Elza Batizfalvy made an appearance. Jászai herself visited many spa-resorts, among others Kovászna in 1898. She spent a longer period of time in Püspökfürdő, and in 1894 she spent her summer vacation in Stoószfürdő. In Borszék the guest of honour was Kornélia Prielle in August 1874, while in the summer of 1882 it was Lujza Blaha with her husband, Baron Ödön Splényi. Aranka Hegyi, one of the starlets of Népszínház (People's Theatre) spent almost every single summer in Palicsfürdő, not far from Szabadka, her birth-place.

Photographer unknown
 
Divald and Monostory, Budapest, 1913
Photographer unknown, c. 1910
Bath huts at Lake Balaton Herkulesfürdő
(now Băile Herculane)
Termal Bath of Hévíz

In the second half of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century it did not really matter what luminaries – poets, writers, actors, public figures – stayed in one spa or another because there was hardly anyone of them who would not have visited this or that resort place. It might, however, be interesting to see who and how often chose any of these resorts and whether and when any of the celebrities were inspired by the genus loci to compose a melody or write a poem. In the memory of a writer or a poet the experience might have been retained for a longer period of time and from the results of the inspired moments we can imagine and draw the picture of the spirit of the age. A bygone age, a peaceful and intimate life at the spa-resorts, when more and more people had the time to spend the best part of summer with their families somewhere in the country in the hope of recovery and rejuvenation.

Domokos Dániel Kis

 

Exhibition arranged by the Theatre History Collection and the Music Collection

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