Since the Roman era, people have visited this cavern to take a dip in the naturally warm waters.
Staff shut off the lights, and started draining pools at Hungary’s Miskolctapolca cave bathtubs on Monday. This was after centuries-old attraction had been hit by a modern crisis: soaring gas prices.
Since the Roman period, people have visited this cavern to take a dip in its naturally warm waters. Since recent years, gas has been used to heat the pools and caves in winter.
However, Russia invaded Ukraine, Hungary’s neighbor, sending shockwaves throughout the global economy. That has led to crippling bills for Miskolctapolca as well as other businesses in Europe and beyond.
Miskolci furdok, the cave’s operator, stated in a statement that the cave was closed on Monday due to its five bathing halls as well as labyrinthine passages equipped with massage jets.
Chief executive Judit Nemeth stated, “We must close the Cave Bath for one reason: our gas use in the three month period from October to December will be costly an additional 61,000,000 Forints ($140,000).”
The closure will have an unavoidable impact on hotels, guesthouses and other tourist business in the vicinity – a troubling sign for an industry that only recently began to recover after the COVID-19 collapse.
Customers were seen taking a dip in the waters before the weekend ended. They expressed their hope for a quick reprieve.
“I don’t get how such a magnificent complex can be closed. The government supports many things. Why don’t they give some to these too? Andrea Muszka was soaking in one of the pools.
Karoly Kerezsi, her husband, said that the hotels would go bankrupt because of this.
However, the cave did not reopen and the reprieve was not granted.
Company data revealed that Miskolci Furdok has been losing money for the past four year, with its 2021 revenues still considerably below pre-pandemic levels.
The gas bill was the end of it all.
Although the government has indicated financial support to small and medium-sized enterprises in key supply chain sectors in the manufacturing sector in order to meet rising energy costs, it has not offered assistance to the service sector.
Nemeth said that if Nemeth could find an energy efficient method to replace the gas price rise, and if he could get some help, then we would start exploring this possibility immediately.
