Gellert Hill offers first class views of the city, taking in both Buda and Pest, along with the winding Danube. The hill was named after a bishop who was asked to convert pagan Magyars to Christianity but, according to legend, the bishop was killed by being rolled off the hillside in a barrel by militant heathens. A statue of the martyred Bishop stands at the base of the hill.
On the hill's summit stands the Liberation Monument, a female figure, who is holding aloft the palm of victory, dedicated to the memoryof Soviet troops who died freeing Hungary in 1945.
The hill is also home to several historic spas, valued for their medicinal qualities since the Turkish occupation. The Gellert Baths, is the city's most famous spa, and is attached to the grand establishment of the Art Nouveau Gellert Hotel. Here visitors can relax in the thermal waters of the Roman-styled pool with its lion-headed spouts, surrounded by columns and mosaic patterns. Visitors can also indulge themselves is private therapeutic treatments or a massage.
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