Rudas Baths

The Rudas Baths on the Buda bank of the Danube are among the finest surviving Ottoman-era thermal baths in Budapest, built in the sixteenth century when the city was under Turkish rule. The central bathing hall is covered by an octagonal domed roof pierced with coloured glass that scatters shafts of light over the pool. Fed by hot springs at the foot of Gellert Hill, the complex combines the historic Turkish section with modern facilities, including a rooftop pool. It remains a working bathhouse steeped in centuries of ritual.