Baths and Bathing in Eighteenth-Century Transylvania
Baths and Bathing in Eighteenth-Century Transylvania

Summary/Abstract: The Hungarian term bath [fürdő] has several meanings, from personal cleanliness to thermal and mineral water cures. Although bath, bathing and the presence of healing and regenerating waters is rarely encountered in eighteenth-century Hungarian ego-documents in Transylvania, we have a few descriptions regarding personal hygiene rituals and several notes on bath used for medical reasons and recreational purposes. These later data suggest that thermal cures were very fashionable in Transylvania, and bathing was not only part of the medical culture but also had a strong social dimension. Thus, in the following we would like to address the issue of personal cleanliness, hydrotherapy and the social dimension of spring-thermal cures.

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