Miskolctapolca or Miskolc-Tapolca (formerly Görömböly-Tapolca, planned to be Tapolcafürdő after gaining independence from Miskolc, in colloquial speech known as Tapolca) is a suburb of Miskolc

Miskolc

Miskolc is a city in northeastern Hungary, mainly with heavy industrial background. With a population close to 170,000 Miskolc is the fourth largest city of Hungary It is also the county capital of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén and the regional centre of Northern Hungary.- Geography :Miskolc is located...

, and is one of the most popular tourist towns of Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

. Not to be confused with Tapolca

Tapolca

Tapolca is a town in Veszprém county, Hungary, close to Lake Balaton. It is located at around .The town has a separate district approximately 5 km to the East called Tapolca-Diszel.- The Lake Cave :...

 town in Veszprém County.

History

The area has been inhabited since ancient times. The archaeological findings can be seen in the Ottó Herman Museum

Ottó Herman Museum

The Ottó Herman Museum is the largest museum of Miskolc, Hungary. It has more than 600,000 artifacts. Its main focus is on archaeology, mineralogy, arts, history and ethnography.-History:...

. Before the Hungarians conquered the area, it was inhabited by Slavic

Slavic peoples

The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...

 tribes. Its name comes from a Slavic word meaning bath and was first mentioned by Anonymus

Anonymus

Anonymus is the Latin spelling of anonymous. This Latin spelling, however, is traditionally used by scholars in the humanities to refer to any ancient writer whose name is not known, or to a manuscript of their work...

.

Documents dating back to 1219 mention a Benedictine monastery in Tapolca; it stood until the 16th century, but during the Ottoman

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 occupation of Hungary the monastery was attacked several times and the monks left. Tapolca remained without permanent residents until the 19th century, although it was used as a holiday resort already in the early 18th century. At this time it belonged to the monastery of Görömböly

Görömböly

Görömböly is a former village, now a part of Miskolc, Hungary. It was annexed to the city in 1950. The holiday resort Miskolc-Tapolca once belonged to Görömböly....

. The bishop of Vác

Vác

Vác is a town in Pest county in Hungary with approximately 35,000 inhabitants. The archaic spellings of the name are Vacz and Vacs.-Location:...

 asked the monastery to develop Tapolca as a holiday resort; three pools were built for the thermal water, and an inn was built too. By 1830 there was an indoor bath too.

In the end of the 19th century the city of Miskolc bought Tapolca from the Church. In 1934 Tapolca officially became a resort town, and began to prosper, restaurants, hotels were opened. By 1941 the new building of the bath was built. In 1959 the Cave Bath was opened, and in 1969 an open-air pool was built too.

In 1950 the village Görömböly, to which Tapolca belonged to, was annexed to Miskolc. Since then Tapolca is called Miskolc-Tapolca.

On 16 January 2005 there was a plebiscite regarding the independence of Tapolca from Miskolc, but the majority of the votes agreed on staying a part of Miskolc. On 7 December 2008 a new plebiscite was held, this time 835 persons voted for Tapolca's independence and 591 voted against.

Tourist attractions

• The 150m long Cave Bath
  Cave Bath
  The Cave Bath is a thermal bath in a natural cave in Miskolctapolca, which is part of the city of Miskolc, Hungary, and is unique in Europe.The thermal water is reputed to cure pain in the joints, and since it has lower salt content than most thermal waters , people can bathe in it for much...
  
   is one of the most beautiful baths of Hungary. It has both indoor and open-air pools, some of them are in a large natural cave. The Cave Bath is open all year.
• In front of the Cave Bath there is a large park with a boat lake.
• There is another bath in Tapolca, with open-air swimming pools.
• The Cave Chapel is a chapel in a small natural cave. Roman Catholic mass is held on every Sunday.

How to get there

• By car: from south (Eger, Budapest) on Highway 3; from East (Debrecen) on Road 35 till Nyékládháza, then on Road 3; from North on Road 26.
• By bus: Take Bus 2 from Miskolc, Búza tér. If you arrive by train, take any Miskolc tram
  Trams in Miskolc
  The Miskolc tramway network is an important part of the public transport network serving Miskolc, Hungary.In operation since 1897, the network presently has two lines.-History:...
  
   from Tiszai station, leave the tram at Szemere street and take Bus 2.

Other data

• Population: 4693 (2001)
• Postal code: 3519
• Distance from Downtown Miskolc: 4,8 km

External links

• Official site (Hungarian only)
• Wikitravel info
• Miskolctapolca info on SeeUinHungary.com