Rudas Bath is a thermal bath in Budapest which is claimed to have medicinal properties. It was first built in 1550, during the time of Ottoman rule. To date, it retains many of the key elements of a Turkish bath, exemplified by its Turkish dome and octagonal pool. It is located at Döbrentei tér 9 on the Buda side of Erzsébet Bridge. The bath has six therapy pools and one swimming pool where the temperature is in between 10 and 42 °C (50 and 108 °F). The components of slightly radioactive thermal water includes sulfate, calcium, magnesium, bicarbonate and a significant amount of fluoride ion. A sight-seeing brochure claims the water can help to treat degenerative joint illnesses, chronic and sub-acute joint inflammations, vertebral disk problems, neuralgia and lack of calcium in the bone system.
The baths were used by Sokollu Mustafa Pasha, Beylerbeyi (governor) of Buda Vilayet of the Ottomans between 1566 and 1578. This is inscribed in Hungarian in the baths, on a stone standing atop the Juve spring, which is believed by locals to have a rejuvenating effect on people.
It re-opened at the beginning of 2006, after a comprehensive renovation of its interior.
The baths are open to women only on Tuesdays, to men the rest of the week, and both men and women on the weekend. The attached swimming pool is always open to both men and women.
References:The Church of St Donatus name refers to Donatus of Zadar, who began construction on this church in the 9th century and ended it on the northeastern part of the Roman forum. It is the largest Pre-Romanesque building in Croatia.
The beginning of the building of the church was placed to the second half of the 8th century, and it is supposed to have been completed in the 9th century. The Zadar bishop and diplomat Donat (8th and 9th centuries) is credited with the building of the church. He led the representations of the Dalmatian cities to Constantinople and Charles the Great, which is why this church bears slight resemblance to Charlemagne's court chapels, especially the one in Aachen, and also to the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna. It belongs to the Pre-Romanesque architectural period.
The circular church, formerly domed, is 27 m high and is characterised by simplicity and technical primitivism.