Balaton Uplands Cultural Landscape

A cool September breeze riffled the branches of the fringing trees as I swam out into Lake Héviz. It was definitely better to be in the water than out on the manicured grass. 38 metres below the centre of the lake hot thermal water gushed forth from a fissure, meaning that the lake was roughly the temperature of a municipal swimming pool. And much like a swimming pool, I was not alone. Around me people swam, floated or just splashed in the shallows. And to my right, patients in white towelling robes sat out on the decking of the spire-roofed spa that projected out into the lake on piles like a British seaside pier. However no municipal pool I’ve ever visited has required me to periodically untangle my feet from water lilies or strings of algae.

It sometimes feels that there is a European UNESCO World Heritage ‘starter pack’: baroque palace, vineyard landscape, gothic cathedral, beech forest, Roman ditch. Plus, coming soon, spa resort. Hungary’s Balaton Uplands Cultural Landscape tentative site manages to tick off a number of these in one go. Baroque palace? Yep, that’s the Festetics Palace in Keszthely. Vineyard landscape? Yep, plenty of references to viticulture shaping the landscape. Spa resort? Yes, two bookend the site, Héviz to the west and Balatonfüred to the east.

Lake Balaton is hard to miss on any map of Europe. At 77km (48 miles) long it is the largest European lake outside outside of Scandinavia. It stetches southwest to …