Balatonfüred

People lived around Füred in prehistoric times, and the Romans left building ruins and graves here. The name first appears in writing in 1211, in a list of the properties of Tihany Abbey; in the Árpád era seven small settlements, including Füred and Arács, occupied today's town. The name is thought to come from an old word for quail, but the town's springs gave it a new meaning, and "füred" came to suggest a spa — hence later resorts named Lillafüred and Mátrafüred.

The sour, carbonated water was recorded in the early 18th century, a wooden and then a stone bath house went up, and the town was officially declared a spa in 1772. In the Reform Era of the early 19th century it became the meeting place of Transdanubia's great families. Sándor Kisfaludy founded the first Hungarian-language stone theatre in Transdanubia here in 1831; in 1825 János Szentgyörgyi Horváth held the first Anna Ball for his daughter; and in 1846, on István Széchenyi's initiative, the first steamship on Lake Balaton, the Kisfaludy, set out from Füred, which also gained a shipyard. After 1867 politicians and artists followed: the shore was built up, the promenade laid out and villas built, and Mór Jókai wrote much of his novel The Man with the Golden Touch in his villa here. Phylloxera later destroyed most of the vineyards.

A new phase began in the 1960s, with large lakeside hotels and a 4,000-place campsite built for an international caravanning rally in 1966. In 1971 Balatonfüred became Hungary's first town designated a spa and resort town, and the neighbouring village of Balatonarács had already been absorbed in 1954. In 2017 it hosted the open-water events of the World Aquatics Championships.

The town's identity rests on its 19th-century heyday as a spa and a gathering place for the nation's writers, actors and statesmen. Plaques at the colonnade known as the Füred Pantheon on Gyógy tér commemorate artists, writers and scientists linked with the town, the actress Lujza Blaha's summer house stands near Gyógy tér, and statues of Ferenc Deák, István Széchenyi and other national figures line the promenade. The Anna Ball, first held in 1825 and held each July, is its best-known social event, and it chooses a belle of the ball from among its guests.

Sailing is the other pillar. The Balatonfüredi Yacht Club, founded by members of the Hungarian gentry in 1867, is the country's oldest established club and has trained Olympic sailors and winners of the Blue Ribbon race around the lake, and the season opens each May with a sail-setting ceremony. The town also has a top-division handball club, and the 2008 Central Europe Rally, organised in place of the cancelled Dakar, finished here.

The town is considered the capital of the northern shore and has a lively civic life for its size, with a music school named after the conductor János Ferencsik, a local television studio and summer festivals of music, wine and the arts. German is the second language of many people around the lake.

About 13,000 people live in Balatonfüred, which is the seat of its own district in Veszprém county. The town has two cores: the lower spa quarter on the shore, with the pier at its centre, and the upper old town around the red and white churches, with shops and offices; housing estates, among them one completed in 1980 north of the station, and holiday homes spread across the slopes.

The State Hospital for Cardiology, opened in 1913 and the largest cardiac-rehabilitation centre in Hungary, has replaced the former shipyard as the main employer, alongside the hotels. Wine-growing adds to the economy, and a large shopping centre opened in 2010. The town has a swimming pool opened in 2017 and several schools, including a secondary school for viticulture.

Life follows the season. In summer the population swells with visitors, boats leave for Tihany and Siófok all day, and the promenade stays busy late; in winter the town is quiet, and in hard frosts skaters and ice boats take over the frozen shallows. In autumn 2023 the town council decided to demolish a failed lakeside leisure complex and replace it with a park and housing.

The lake and the vineyards shape what is eaten and drunk here. Carp is the most common catch in the lake, and fish dishes dominate the menus along the shore, among them halászlé, the hot fisherman's soup of paprika and river fish traditionally cooked over an open fire in a cauldron called a bogrács. Lángos — deep-fried flatbread, whose name comes from láng, the Hungarian word for flame — is the classic beach snack.

Away from the water, the restaurants of the upper town keep to traditional Hungarian cooking: stews, soups, stuffed pancakes (palacsinta) and cakes. Small cube-shaped cakes are a national habit, and one of them is named after the lake itself.

Wine is the town's pride. Balatonfüred belongs to the Balatonfüred-Csopak wine region, part of the larger Balaton wine region, and its cellars sell white wine from the slopes above the town, above all Olaszrizling (Welschriesling), the most widespread grape in Hungary. Since 1987 the town has carried the title of International City of Vine and Wine, and its summer wine festival fills the promenade in August.