"It is forbidden to enter the bath without first greeting the other guests. Argument should be avoided, especially over matters of faith…None shall bear nor use arms," ran the bath bye-laws in 18th century Hungary. This strict etiquette was widely understood in Hungary at a time when, in western Europe, such baths were scarcely to be found. When, at the end of the 17th century, the English Doctors'

Society sent Edward Brown, an English doctor, to Stubnyafurdo in what is now Slovakia, he was astonished to find eight baths. The popularity of the baths in 17th- and 18th century Hungary was largely due to the survival of bathing customs that had developed some 150 years before, when Hungary was under Turkish rule. The pashas ensured that larger towns all had at least a small bath. Balazs Sudar, a historian of the period, estimated that some 80 to 85 baths must have been built. These institutions allowed citizens to carry out their ritual washing obligations, but were also a source of relaxation. In the mid-1500s, the Csaszar, Kiraly, Rac and Rudas baths were built in Buda, on the ruins of earlier Roman baths. The Rudas has been under restoration, and was reopened in December 2005. In the day, people would spend as long as half a day at their ritual washing. Bathers would sweat in the steam baths in the name of Allah, who demanded cleanliness and beauty.

Slaves would massage their entire bodies, and afterwards they would stretch their skin in cold and hot pools. For men, this was followed by a shave. Women would depilate everything their entire bodies, with the exception of the hair on their heads.