Gellért Thermal Bath

The architectural one. Opened in 1918 at the foot of Gellért Hill, and built as the bathing wing of the hotel next door, its main hall is a vaulted Art Nouveau room lined with glazed Zsolnay ceramics, stained glass and mosaic — a cathedral that happens to have been built for swimming.

The Zsolnay tiling is the detail worth slowing down for. The factory in Pécs developed a lustre glaze that does not fade, and the greens and blues in this room have looked like this for over a century. The indoor thermal pools sit under carved stone lion heads; the effervescent pool in the main hall still has its original glass roof, which opens in summer.

It is smaller and considerably calmer than Széchenyi, and its outdoor section is much less impressive — a wave pool and terraces, pleasant but not the reason to come. Come for the inside, which is worth the entry on its own even if you never get in the water.

The building sits directly at the Buda end of Liberty Bridge, so it pairs naturally with a walk up Gellért Hill or across the river to the Central Market Hall.