Covasna, the Empire of Mofettes

The story dates back to the 1880s, long before the advent of modern balneology, when Áron Bardócz from Covasna woke up one morning to find his horses dead in the stables. The vet was shocked to find that an invisible force, a gas called carbon dioxide, had killed them. The farmer no longer had any animals, recognising the potential of using the gas upsurge for medicinal purposes. In the nearly a century and a half since then, mofette has grown to industrial proportions in the spa town of the “Orbaiszék” area. The famous treatment in the spa town of mofettes and a thousand thermal springs is of Italian origin and was made famous in Transylvania after the Treaty of Trianon, especially by Romanian spa doctors. The linguistic implantation has been very successful, the term mofette, originally a volcanological term, sounds much more mysterious and “international” than the Hungarian term “gőzlő”.

Covasna's reputation is now confirmed by over 50,000 spa guests a year. Most of them are elderly patients using free treatment tickets, but the opportunities in the area offer much more. Just like the world's largest mofette used for medical purposes, located in the Dr. Benedek Géza Cardiac Hospital, where more than 600 people visit it daily in half-hour shifts.

Samu Csinta