Széchenyi Thermal Bath

This guide to Széchenyi Thermal Bath in Budapest follows engineer Vilmos Zsigmondy, who spent a decade drilling into Budapest's City Park chasing rumors of scalding water beneath the mud. It traces the well's completion in 1878, the bathhouse that followed, and architect Győző Czigler's honey-colored palace built to house the springs by 1913. Listen for what generations of bathers have been doing shoulder-deep in that same water ever since.