Budapest dopo Budapest. Il ruolo chiave dei bagni termali e l’Hotel Gellért, dopo il collasso del 1918

In the framework of the Habsburg Empire and its aftermath the role of many cities changed several times. Some of them, like Lemberg or Czernowitz, were regional capitals of duchies and seats of parliaments, after the collapse of the empire they played a new increasing “national” role in just re-built or expanded nations, but loosing their status. Others, thanks to political agreements during the life of the monarchy, changed rank and got a strong upgrade, like Budapest and Zagreb. The most important change happened to the Hungarian city. In 1867, after the “Compromise” and the official birth of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, Transleitania - the Hungarian part of the Empire – launched an ambitious project of the material and symbolic re-design of its newly established capital city, Budapest, operated by the Municipal Board of Public Works. By 1896 the capital was ready: the Millennial Exhibition was to demonstrate the development of the Hungarian nation. After 1918, like Vienna, Budapest became an overgrown and oversized capital city, disproportioned to the country, but in few years it re-shaped itself as thermal city, emphasizing a historical tradition and finding a new destiny. In 1918 Gellért Fürdő opened: promoted by the Municipal Board of Public Works, it was the biggest thermal plant in Budapest, combined with a luxury Grand Hotel. Between 1927 and 1931 the Szécheny Thermal Baths in the City Park were doubled. In 1929 the Hungarian Parliament delivered a new specific act about spa treatments, setting up the National Commission of Spa, based in Budapest, and highlighting the economical benefits thanks the mix of spa treatments and tourism. In the thirties Budapest becomes a well known centre of spa tourism: the total amount of visitors increased ten times, allowing to crown the city as Ville d’eaux in the advertising and to organize there, in 1937, the International Congress of Spas. In this social, historical and political framework the Gellért Fürdő és Szálloda, designed by Artúr Sebestyén, Ármin Hegedűs and Izidor Sterk played a great role: object of a competition published on the architectural magazines showing all the entries, it appears in its late Secession glory in all the short movies by Pathé or other Film Companies as a major place in Budapest, a city described as the most important health resort in Europe.