Staff turned off the lights and started draining the pools at Hungary's famous Miskolctapolca cave baths this week, after the centuries-old attraction succumbed to a modern-day crisis: soaring gas prices.
- The centuries-old baths have been closed indefinitely
- Its chief executive says gas usage would cost an extra $221,108 over the winter months
- There are concerns for the flow-on impact on nearby accommodation and tourism businesses
Visitors have been coming to the vast cavern, 185km north-west of Budapest, since before Roman times to bathe in its naturally heated waters.
In recent years, the venue has relied on gas to top up the temperatures in the pools and the caves, particularly during winter.
However, then Russia invaded Hungary's neighbour Ukraine, sending shock waves across the global economy and energy markets.
For Miskolctapolca, and other businesses across Europe and beyond, that has filtered through in the form of crippling bills.
The cave — with its five bathing halls and labyrinthine passages with massage jets and echoing chambers — closed on Monday "for an indefinite period", according to operator Miskolci Furdok.
"We have to close the cave bath, for one single reason: Our gas usage in the three months from October to December will cost an additional 61 million forints ($221,108)," chief executive Judit Nemeth said.
The closure will have an inevitable impact on hotels and guesthouses and other tourist businesses in the surrounding area, a worrying sign for an industry that had only recently started to recover from the COVID-19 slump.
Customers bathing in the waters for the last time before the weekend, said they were still hoping for a last-minute reprieve.
"I cannot understand the closure of such a wonderful complex," said Andrea Muszka as she soaked in one of the pools.
"The government supports all sorts of things. Couldn't they just give some to this too?"
"The hotels will go bankrupt as they are dependent on this," Karoly Kerezsi added.
But the reprieve didn't come and the cave closed.
Miskolci Furdok had been loss-making for the past four years, with its 2021 revenue still substantially below pre-pandemic levels, company data showed.
The gas bill was the last straw.
Hungary's government has flagged financial help to small- and medium-sized businesses working in key supply chains in the manufacturing sector to cope with rising energy costs, but has yet to offer help to the services sector.
"If we could somehow find an energy-efficient way to replace this huge gas price rise, and if we could get some help, then we would immediately start to explore that possibility," Ms Nemeth said.
Reuters