Nincs absztrakt.

Social life in nineteenth-century Balatonfüred, the oldest lake resort of the Balaton region, was characterized by a perceptible tension between different social layers and groups, which was exacerbated by the limited physical space available to the guests. The present study focuses on the prevalent social groups in the composition of the resort’s clientele. It examines the resort as a major influence on their emerging relations and interactions: the ways in which it strengthened and weakened those, and set their pace, directions, and boundaries. The Balatonfüred resort was a community space, a semi-public domain where access mainly depended on income, so the boundaries of feudal society no longer defined those of the clientele. The study addresses a number of questions from this perspective. Was the separation of social groups made sharper by the fact that their membership had to share a limited physical space? What patterns can be detected in the contacts and communication among guests? Can their behaviors, even identities, be considered local or situational? To what extent did the situation result in closer contacts between individuals leading a less regimented life or subscribing to different norms? Did the spa atmosphere really foster bourgeois settings and usher in the modernity of social contacts? Did the limited physical space encourage closer contact, or did it kindle more tension? How did the management approach these issues, how did the guests perceive them, and how were they portrayed in contemporary press?

Nincs absztrakt.

Nincs absztrakt.

Balatonfüred was one of the best-known and most frequented Hungarian bathing resorts during the entire 19th century. Numerous narrative sources inform on the everyday life and the way of living of its guests, but the most telling sources on the society of bathing guests are the bathing lists. A comparison of data from the 1840s and 1860s makes it evident that changes occurring in the overall society are traceable among the lines of bathers as well: Füred was increasingly becoming the resort of the middle classes. However, the 1860s are highly important in the history of the resort from other aspects as well: the development of the middle class bathing resort begins, the transport improves through the railway, bathing guests from distant regions increasingly frequent Füred, consequently the resort gradually loses its regional character that was still strongly present in the Reform Age. By the analysis of the 1840s and 1860s one might risk the statement that contrary to established commonplaces, the true golden age of the resort was in the 1860s and 1870s.