While ancient civilisations established basic cosmetics, a bathing culture and sewerage, Europeans in the Middle Ages largely disposed of these civilised initiatives. Cleanliness was not exactly aided by cesspits and a lack of running water, with filth often contaminating the streets.
Some medieval homes started using more advanced and comfortable latrines from the 16th century onwards. The flush toilet was invented in England in 1589, but it wasn’t common in Hungary until centuries later.
The first was installed in 1840 at Nagycenk, the mansion owned by progressive Count István Széchenyi, of Chain Bridge fame.
Compared to the often unpleasant hygienic standards across Europe – the infamous conditions at Versailles during Louis XIV, for example – Hungarians had enjoyed a rather cleaner lifestyle, which can be attributed to the Ottomans who imported their own bathing culture. Even before then, 13th-century Hungarian king Béla IV gave a silver bathtub to his daughter as a wedding present to take with her abroad.
Changing hygiene and bathing habits
In her doctorial thesis, Changing Hygiene and Bathing Habits in Hungary 1850-1920, Anett Takács writes: Travel descriptions of the time about baths illustrate Hungarians’ love of bathing. At the start of the modern era, this is proved by the use of bathhouses, washbasins and similar facilities, and the existence of soap factories since the 15th century. Hair care, the use of various medicinal baths and fragrant oils were widespread. Until the end of the 18th century, soap was obtained at fairs or made at home, and from the beginning of the 19th century, toiletries were available in shops in Pest and Buda.
Neatness, good looks and cleanliness were, of course, the prerogative of the wealthier class until the middle of the 20th century, although government regulation sought to extend a culture of hygiene to all.
Changing times
The lack of public sanitation led to dangerous diseases in past centuries, for example cholera, which raged in the 1800s. This particular disaster prompted the authorities to implement changes and create modern sewage systems across Europe.
To combat the spread of epidemics, individual lifestyles had to be altered as well. A law in 1856 prohibited the slaughter of animals on the streets of Budapest, and ordered pavements to be kept clean. As a major shift, the issue surrounding sewerage and drainage was finally considered in the 1870s and the city’s infrastructure started developing significantly, reaching European standards by the beginning of the 20th century. This was the time period when urbanisation and industrialisation initiated large demographic growth and mass numbers of new buildings and houses were built.
There were no bathrooms in sight until the late 19th century, and daily cleaning was done by wash-bowls installed in the bedroom, kitchen or courtyard. From 1880, construction plans for residential buildings, villas and mansions started to include private bathrooms and flush toilets as well. Apartment houses and workers’ homes, however, only had community toilets at the end of corridors, and lacked bathrooms. However surprising it may be, only half of all Budapest apartments were equipped with bathrooms during both world wars.
The first public restroom in the capital was installed on Deák Ferenc tér in 1870. Before the outbreak of World War II, Budapest numbered 82 of these Beetz-type public toilets. Some of these emblematic green booths can still be found today, for example at Lövölde tér, on Nagymező utca or at Károlyi-kert.
Communal cleanliness
In the early 1900s, three quarters of the population in Budapest had nowhere to wash themselves regularly, partly because of the housing situation and the lack of knowledge about personal cleanliness. Washrooms, which spread across the city in the 20th century, provided a good solution for this problem. There was a range of services offered by these institutions, including medical treatments and hairdressing, but some also referred to these places as brothels.
Thermal baths were another option to get clean, as was the Danube for those of lower income. Nine lidos were opened in Budapest from 1913 for the summer period, and were usually filled with bathing and relaxing locals.
Tragedy on the Danube
Why do Budapest’s industrial workers, commercial and private employees, officials – hundreds, even thousands of men, women and children – go to the Danube bank on Monostor Island to bathe and bask? Monostor Island is almost 20km from the capital. Travel costs range from 1.20 to 1.50 crowns. Why do sunseekers risk their lives on summer Sundays, thousands fleeing to some bumpy spot with animal waste on the ground? There can be only comprehensive answer – just look at the miserable housing conditions of Budapest, the non-existent institutions serving the health of the people – is how Népszava criticised the situation in 1916, in the wake of the ferry disaster between Dunakeszi and Monostor Island.
To improve the hygienic standards of the lower classes, a national public baths association was created in 1906, promoting the establishment of bathing institutions beside schools, factories and workers’ homes. The importance of these are revealed in an article from 1933 in Friss Újság, written after the closure of a public baths in Tripolisz, the most impoverished area of Angyalföld.
According to the article, between 1926 and 1930, the baths welcomed around 12-13,000 poor local children who needed to wash. As one working class lady explained, “I would gladly bathe my children, the question is where and with what. I can’t heat water or even the room. If there were free public baths somewhere, we would be happy to go. There used to be one here in Tripolisz, but it was shut down”.
Other parts of the city also suffered from a lack of bathing facilities at the time. Kőbánya, far from the city centre with a population of 75,000 had no such institutions at all. Carrying water up to the Buda hills was sometimes also a great challenge, and the colder seasons reduced washing there to a minimum. Public baths were therefore a great necessity.
Bathrooms for all
The well-to-do often regarded bathrooms as a status symbol rather than a facility. As renowned Hungarian author Sándor Márai writes, bathrooms were mainly used as a storage space. Although members of the family entered to wash themselves from time to time, it was hard to move around from all of the luggage, cleaning materials and the drying laundry. The bathtub itself was also often filled with household items, and was only allowed to serve its actual purpose before New Year’s Eve, when someone was ill or before a wedding.
People cared more about outer appearances: a well-groomed appearance, clean rooms, neat hair and clothes counted as important. Personal hygiene consisted of a cat’s lick and a promise in the mornings and in the evenings, and a maximum of one actual bath a week. Regular bathing was often regarded as extravagance and vanity.
In 1831, soap manufacturing started in Pest and was one of the city’s most flourishing local businesses for a century. József Hutter’s factory created the forerunner of today’s Caola. Az illatszerész (‘The Parfumier’) magazine produced data in 1932 that between 1912 and 1930, that purveyors of soap in Budapest had risen from 24,062 to 44,062, producers 39,106 to 72,738.
A pharmaceutical industry started up in 1925, the women’s hairdressers’ association the year before.
The beauty business became a prominent feature in local life, targeting upper-class women and housewives with marketing campaigns and tips.
Hygienic baths were still used by the masses even after World War II. Dandár Baths, built in the 1930s, were one example.
By the 1970s, every newly built Budapest flat had its own bathroom, and public baths were either shut down or converted into thermal baths – such as the Dandár.
References
Anett Takács Higiéniai és tisztálkodási szokások változása 1850-1920 között Magyarországon
Katalin
Juhász Lábfürdô négy fillérért, 2007
Dr Sándor Szabó A közegészségügy, 1913
Népszava 6.8.1916
Friss Újság 8.1.1933
Az illatszerész 18th edition, 1932
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