Balatonfüred (106m (348ft); pop. 14,200) is a resort which is steeped in tradition and an important spa for heart and circulation disorders. The healing properties of the carbonated waters were recognized back in the 1730s; in 1743 the monastery in Tihany acquired the town and built a bath-house near the streams, In 1772 Balatonfüred was
officially declared a spa town.
Between 1825 and 1848 it became the meeting-place of the Hungarian intelligentsia of the Reform Period, and in 1831 the town council presented it with the first permanent theater to perform plays in the Hungarian language. It was from Balatonfüred harbor that the first steamship sailed on Lake Balaton in 1846.
Sights
Surrounded by parks and historic buildings and containing the pump room built around the Lajos Kossuth stream in the 19th C, Gyógy tér (Spa Square) forms the center of this bustling spa town. The most splendid building on Gyógy tér is Horváth House, built c 1790 and now forming part of the sanatorium, the main façade of which is graced by an oriel window with columns and by wrought-iron railings. The "Balatonfüred Pantheon" contains an arcade decorated with plaques in memory of famous people who have visited the spa. In the hall of the former Horváth hotel, a late 18th C plait style building (1802-10) on the west side of the square, the well-known "St Anne's Ball" has been held on the last Sunday in July every year since 1825. On the west side of the square, too, is the street known as Blaha Lujza, formerly Balatonfüred Corso, where Mór Jokai had his summer residence. It leads to the Classical round church dating from 1841-46, modeled on the church of St Anne in Esztergom. On the main front of the church is an attractive open portico, the triangular gable of which is supported by three Ionic columns.
South of Gyógy tér lies a park filled with plane and lime trees. Stretching right down to the lake, it is the resort's favorite meeting place. The promenade is named after the world-famous Hindu author Rabindranath Tagore, who found here a cure for his heart condition here and planted a lime tree in the park in 1926 as a token of his gratitude. Since then it has become the custom for renowned visitors or patients to do the same. From the park a long mole leads down to the harbor and to the beautiful sculpture "Balaton Wind" by Miklós Borsos.
Along the bank to the west of the mole are a row of hotels, former nursing homes, offices of sailing clubs and the largest camp site by Lake Balaton - each with its own beach.
On the other side of the railroad line, in that part of the town which is north of the spa and the holiday homes, the mansion belonging to the Gombás family will be found at Arácsi utca 94; it is a pretty dwelling of rural character built at the end of the 18th C in the 18th C plait style.
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