The heliothermal lakes of Szováta

The first written record of the thermal springs of Szovátafürdő dates back to 1715, by id. István Halmágyi mentions the settlement in his diary, when he talks about the "famous beneficial" medicinal waters. In 1780, Johann Ehrenreich Fichtel also mentions that 'the lakes of Szováta do not freeze ever, and in summer, with the warm sunshine, they are as warm as a moderately hot sulphur bath'.

The birth of the Salt County, at the beginning of the Palaeogene, can be dated to the subsidence of the Transylvanian Basin, at the same time as the Carpathians were thickened. The Salt Mountains of Szováta, beneath the present-day Cheresznyés Hill, emerged in a deep erosion trench around 20-22 million years ago. The salt mass, which was pushed up through a narrow valley, took on an oval shape and became embedded in the surrounding volcanic rocks. With the eruption of the salt mountain in Szováta, the water flowing down the Sebesd stream changed its course and carved a new bed around the salt mountain. In the last centuries, the largest lakes in the Salt Lake region, including the world-famous Bear Lake, the youngest of the giant lakes, were formed on the site of these shoals.

Birth of a lake

1In the spring of 1875, the site of today's Bear Lake was still a huge polje (karst field), known locally as "Pálné-gödre". Its bottom was covered with lush grass, and this field was known as the 'reaper's field of Forika'. The meadow was crossed by the Körös-Toplica stream, and in the middle of the meadow there was a huge ponor (waterhole), which swallowed the stream. According to local legend, on Sunday, 27 May 1875, two saltermen, Sándor Kiss and András Simon, were collecting hay in the depression. At 11 o'clock in the morning, a huge downpour occurred. The water picked up the collected hay and carried it into the ponor, hiding it. The process of the formation of the Bear Pond began with the clogging of the sinkhole. The new lake eagerly dissolved the surrounding salt rocks, including the one that separated the Gold Mine Creek bed from the shelf. Finally, four years later, in 1879, with a huge bang, the salt rock collapsed into the depths. After the rockfall, the Gold Mine stream also flowed into the Pálné-gödre, swelling the new lake into a mighty swell that increasingly resembled a stretched-out bearskin. It reached its largest extent in 1881. Its present size is smaller due to filling: length 288 m, width 132-210 m, maximum depth 18,9 m.

The Bear Lake is therefore very salty, with a thin layer of fresh water on its surface which gradually warms up in the sun. This is a heliothermal phenomenon, due to two freshwater streams flowing over the lake, which is a concentrated saltwater lake. Were it not for this very thin layer of fresh water, just a few centimetres above the concentrated salt water, the Bear Lake would behave in the same way (warming up during the day and cooling down again at night) as any natural lake in the world.

However, as in the case of Bear Lake, the density of the freshwater layer on the surface is much lower than the salt water below it, which is up to 50 C°. This difference in density prevents flow processes from occurring. This causes the temperature of the salt water in the heat-absorbing zone to rise day by day to almost unbelievably high levels not found anywhere else in nature. If there were no bathers in Bear Lake, the lake would be over 70°C. However, after the opening of the spa inováta, the intensive bathing has meant that the Bear Lake never reaches this temperature. The highest temperatures, 35-50°C, are measured at the beginning of the bathing season, and by the end of the season the lake temperature drops to 25-30°C.

Bath culture in Szováta

By the early years of the 20th century, Szováta had become one of the most popular holiday resorts in Transylvania. This rapid development in just three decades was due to the fact that at the turn of the century the middle class in our country had become very large and could afford a holiday in a spa resort. Moreover, the birth of the modern spa of Szovátafürdő coincided with the spread of theories by English doctors about the miraculous curative properties of warm salt baths. Initially, guests could only travel by train to Târgu Mures and from there by car to the spa. The main attraction was then the Black Lake. From 1905, the expansion of the national railway network made Szováta one of the most directly accessible spas by rail. The first hotels in Szovátafürdő were gradually built: the Petőfi Hotel, the Rákóczi Hotel on the opposite side of the lake, and spa villas around the Black Lake.
Interestingly enough, it was only about two decades after its creation that the Bear Lake came to the centre of attention, thanks to Lajos Illyés Sófalvi. He was the first to recognise the economic potential of the new lake, and in 1894 he built a villa on the lakeshore and applied to the Ministry for a bathing licence after obtaining the exclusive right of use for himself and his family. In 1896, the monks of the monastery of Mikhaza started building above his bathing villa, on the site of the present-day management section of the Hotel Szováta. Lajos Illyés continued to build and improve his baths, founding the Upper Szováta Baths, which rested on the Bear Lake, and the rival Lower Szováta Baths, which included the Géra Baths and the Black Lake. In 1902, the Reformed Church sold the loss-making spa to Illyés, who was able to create the unified Spa of Szovátafürdő.

At the outbreak of the First World War, the spa was completely emptied, and in the autumn of 1916 the heavy fighting around Szováta and the soldiers who were stationed at the spa caused enormous damage to the buildings. The Béldi villa and the bathhouse and hotel of Lajos Illyés on the shores of Lake Bear were burnt down. After the war, in parallel with the removal of Hungarians from public administration and state jobs in general, the new regime sought to reduce the economic power of Hungarians in Transylvania. Fortunately, Lajos Illyés realised in time that he could no longer revive his damaged spa under the changed circumstances, and by a clever move sold it in 1925, before the state expropriation. The baths were bought by prominent members of the National Peasant Party, who set up the Szovátai Baths Company Ltd.

The second half of the 1970s saw the construction of modern hotels in Szováta: the Szováta Hotel, the Mogyoró Hotel, the Bükk Hotel and the Fenyő Hotel. In the shadow of the hotels, unfortunately, no one cared about the villas and their renovation. Thus, by the time they were returned to their rightful owners after the regime change, most of them had become unrenovable.

Bathing life in today

The third rebirth of the spa town of Szovátafürdő began some thirty years ago, in 1994, when, despite the protests of the Romanian press, the Baths Ltd. was bought by the Danubius Hotels Group. A renovated four-star hotel in Szováta is attracting tourists to the city again, and the municipal authorities have spent more than 20 million euros on the revival of the water supply, sewage system, roads, pavements and promenades. Currently, the spa offers a variety of balneo-physiotherapy treatments: salt water, spa mud from the spa in Szovátafürdő , and other physiotherapy methods, physiotherapy, physiotherapy gymnastics and therapeutic massage. A growing number of wellness services, steam baths and saunas are available at the spa.

The Bear Lake is mainly visited for infertility problems and rheumatic and inflammatory diseases. A salt lake, the water is constantly in motion and therefore often silting up and landslides occur. The influx of fresh water and bathers causes the temperature of the lake to drop, and it is periodically rested daily, –  when bathing is not possible –  to restore the balance between salt and fresh water.

The recently completed "Salt Road" project has created educational trails and footpaths in the surrounding area, with the aim of preserving the title of "the most famous and popular bathing place in Transylvania".

László Gönczi

Sources:

Korunk, 2009 (20. évfolyam, 8. szám) 2009 / 8. szám / Józsa András: Szovátafürdő

Szovátai Medve-tó