My home town - Hévíz

Hévíz is one of the biggest and best known spa resorts of Hungary. It lies 6 kilometres from Keszthely at the western corner of Lake Balaton. Here we find the biggest hot water lake in the world.
The town of Hévíz has got 4800 inhabitants but thousands of tourists come here for the sake of rehabilitation all the year round. The temperature of the water reaches 30-35 degrees in the summer and it does not go below 22 degrees even in winter. One of the specialities of the lake is the highly curative mud, which is used for mudpackings, but the water itself and the treatments also cure rheumatical diseases of the joints and the bones, locomoter disorders, neuritis and lumbago, too.
The lake has some special species of animals and plants, for example the symbol of Hévíz: the waterlilly.
The "miraculous" effect of the lake was already recognised by the Romans, but the town was turned into a spa only in 1795 by György Festetics. He started the building of the first bath houses on the lake. Since then millions of foreign and Hungarian people have visited the town. The State Spa Hospital, which can be found near the lake, provides a wide choice of therapies, for example complete balneo-, hydro-, and electrotherapy, healing massage and exercises and stand-by services, as well.
Besides this about 23 hotels provides accomodations and means of entertainment for people visiting the town. In the summer brass bands, majorettes, operetta performances and concerts entertain visitors. And, of course, from the town you can go on short excursions to the towns and villages in the neighbourhood. You can visit the ruins of Rezi or Tátika castles, Badacsony, Tapolca, Sümeg and Keszthely, too.