The city of Gyula had a cold water bath even before the Turkish rule. In 1518, a charter stipulated that the parish priest had to keep it in order. Naturally, the bath culture flourished during the Turkish times, and the Turkish traveler Evlia Cselebi mentioned 11 baths in Gyula. In 1722, Franz Rosenfeld already depicted the Turkish bath in an engraving.

 

After the expulsion of the Turks, the longest-running steam bath in Gyula was built by Alajos Popp in 1887, where 12 bathtubs and a common pool fed by an artesian well awaited bathers separated by gender. Several open-air baths were already operating in the city at the end of the 19th century, but the success of the efforts to build swimming pools had to wait a few decades.

 

On the initiative of two master builders from Gyula, the Beach Bath was granted an operating permit on July 31, 1930, on the canal section adjacent to today's Castle Bath. It was a 60 x 12 meter beach section fenced off from the Élővíz Canal with a retaining wall. At that time, bathing was expressly prohibited in other parts of the city. The hardships of the Great Depression and the war did not spare the Beach Bath either, so in the 1940s, the idea of a deep-drilled well was already being discussed. So much so that in 1942, the Almásy family founded the Gyulai Fürdő és Üdülő Részvénytársaság for the purpose of establishing a holiday resort and spa in the castle garden, to which the count's family even provided a loan to start the drilling work. The well drilling, which began in 1943 and was, according to contemporary documents, ultimately unprofessional, was interrupted by further storms of history (nationalization, relocation of the county seat from Gyula) several times. The 29-degree water flowing from this broken well was used to fill and hand over the 33 1/3-meter swimming and diving pool built next to the “Uncle Abaházi’s diving school” in 1951.

 

But the people of Gyula – being persistent people – did not give up on their plans for the spa. In 1957, the City Council decided to establish the spa, and a year later, deep drilling began in the vicinity of the Horse Stables in a ceremonial setting. The thermal water of Gyula was first seen by the eagerly awaited, curious masses on September 17, 1958. This alkaline-hydrogen-carbonate thermal mineral water still forms the basis of the Gyula Castle Spa, which opened its doors on May 1, 1959. We can thank the students from Gyula who won the tender at the time for the name. The first thermal pool was put into operation by rebuilding the pool of the former Coastal Spa, now filled with the famous, yellowish-brown thermal water of Gyula.

 

The first bathing season already made it clear that new pools and changing rooms were urgently needed. In 1960, a new well and a shallower beach pool were also opened, so it is not surprising that the spa had 250,000 visitors in its second year. By the summer of 1961, three new children's pools and two medicinal pools with benches were also completed. In 1963, work began on the renovation of the Count's Riding School, built in 1833, marking the beginning of the second phase of the spa's development.

 

The Riding School and the winter bath were completed by 1965, and in the same year the then Ministry of Health declared a designated part of the inner city of Gyula a resort. This year was a very important milestone in the life of the Castle Bath, as the tubs and pools, which had previously only been used as sanitary baths, also served medical treatment purposes. The five-year plan drawn up in 1967 already included the construction of a 50-meter swimming pool, a whirlpool pool and a wave pool. The plans were only strengthened by the fact that the thermal water of the first well was declared medicinal water in 1968, and the bath was declared a medical bath in 1971.

 

The 1970s brought the golden age of the Castle Bath, in 1970 it boasted 550 thousand visitors, and it was then that swimming in Gyula began its truly conquering journey. In 1972, thermal spring number V was put into operation, and the 50-meter swimming pool was opened, and Gyula was the first city in the country to introduce mandatory swimming lessons for all children.

 

In 1981, the slide pool and the iconic wooden shading structure above the first medicinal pool were completed, and in 1984, guests were able to take possession of the indoor bath, now known as the domed wellness. As a ceremonial event, in 1985, the Ministry of Public Welfare declared the area around the bath a medicinal resort, which was clearly founded on the medicinal water. In the eighties, several technical modernizations were carried out, the bath was expanded with new catering and commercial units, and the park and transportation routes were also modernized.

 

The political storms of the 1990s also affected the Castle Bath, and this decade did not bring significant development. In 1999, a multi-step development schedule was prepared, and the new millennium was about its implementation. As part of the Széchenyi I. project, the medical pools were renovated and the heating system was modernized. In 2002, the medical treatment began operating in its current location and largely with the equipment that is still in operation. At that time, the domed indoor bath was transformed into a wellness bath with rotating water, and this year also brought the children's water paradise for the little ones, and the slide pool got a kamikaze and a giant slide.

 

In 2004-05, the Széchenyi II. project aimed to completely reconstruct the Lovarda and build the Polip pool. The swimming pool was remodeled, and new ticket offices were built on the Fahíd and Kőhíd bridges. The end of the decade was also about development, with the Castello Sauna Park opening in December 2009 with European-standard outdoor sauna houses, indoor saunas, a steam cabin and relaxation areas, and a sauna garden.

 

The new family adventure bath, AquaPalota, was built for Christmas 2013 as the largest investment in the history of the Castle Bath, and completed the bath's offer with its special family-friendly services and environmentally conscious technical solutions. The changing rooms, the access control system and the main entrance have been renovated in connection with AquaPalota, and the main entrance also evokes a new harmony close to nature.

 

The nearly one and a half decades following the handover of AquaPalota were one of the most successful and dynamic periods in the history of the Castle Baths, during which the complex managed to keep on a growth path in a fierce, multi-player, tourism competition, even in the midst of external crises (COVID-19, energy crisis). Annual attendance stabilized at around 600 thousand visitors thanks to conscious marketing and continuous service developments, the focus of which is on high-level service to the needs of the transforming and globalizing market.

The spa has implemented, year after year, investments to increase operational safety and energy efficiency, which provide the basis for sustainability and crisis resistance. As a result, we have practically eliminated our annual gas consumption of 445,000 m3, and reduced our electricity consumption by more than 40%, from 4,821 MWh to 2,847 MWh per year. In addition, our entire technical infrastructure, which provides operational safety, has also been renewed.

In the post-COVID period, a significant part of the Castle Bath has been completely renovated and in terms of service standards it is now able to satisfy even the highest market demands. Thanks to the fact that the bath is not only a beach, but also a historical monument located in a primeval park, it offers a unique guest experience as an active caretaker of the Erkel heritage.

In order to improve the quality of service, the Castle Bath awaits its guests with renewed medical care, a renovated sauna park, an expanded winter rest area and changing rooms, new and renovated restaurants and outdoor thermal pools renewed in both their appearance and function. The park has received an automatic irrigation system, and the historic Riding School has now become one of the most beautiful thermal complexes in the country. Thanks to the renewed children's paradise, the city of Gyula has been put back on the travel map of family guests.