Székesfehérvár, the Revitalization of the Inner City Baths

Architect: Péter Koch
Text: Miklós Okrutay
Photos: József Hajdú

The revolution of hygiene reached Székesfehérvár in 1905, and the last day of the year saw the inauguration of the medical bath based on local spring water. Designed by Jenő Hübner, the Art Nouveau-style Árpád Baths was extended with a hotel in the 1920s from the direction of Várkörút and after World War II a 25-metre swimming-pool also completed the complex. In the early 1990s the city had a modern swimming-pool built on the outskirts leaving on its own the old building serving generations previously. Deterioration started ome 15 years ago. Beyond the beauty of the facelifted baths it is disturbing that the Art Nouveau world and the period of the construction of the baths restored with so much effort and the aesthetic quality it represents has left the „designers” of the new spaces unimpressed to this extent. The comparison of the two eras, the tastes of the early 20th century and our days is a dramatic one, even though originally the baths was not built for the social elite but for the general public.

Architect: Koch Péter
Structure: Benedek Dezső
Engineering: Gáspár Ottokár
Electrical engineering: ifj. Sas Gyula
Woodworks: Koch Zoltán
Interior design: Mécs Sándor
Art historian: Bartos György
Archaeology: Siklósi Gyula
Historical restoration: Lángi József, Budavári József, Czifrák László, Ország Zsolt, Kóbor Zsolt, Zágoni Péter, Kovács Attila, Csányi Szabolcs, Rajna Krisztián, Kaba Zsolt, Kovács Árpád