Hospital in the Rock

This museum whose history can be found on Wikipedia is called “Hospital in the Rock”. I would recommend a visit to anyone medical as it has a fascinating history and there are life sized displays of what it was like. We were not meant to take photographs but I managed to snap one when the guide was not looking. There was an excellent english speaking guide. One was able to experience the last 80 years through the experience of a hospital and who was treated. The underground tunnels had been present for centuries. It was in 1939 that the Mayor of Budapest arranged for the construction of a secret  hospital underground. It was completed in 1944.  During the 1945 siege of Budapest the hospital which was designed for 60 patients had about 600 patients. It was again extensively needed during the 1956 Hungarian revolution. The hospital museum has displays of the operating rooms, the equipment used in its time  and medicines I noticed bottles of the antibiotic Chloramphenicol. They were also likely using Chloroform and Ether. Some of the equipment and surgical instruments I recognized from the training in the 1960s in London!

During the Cold War a secret nuclear protected bunker was built adjacent to the hospital. I had seen nuclear bunkers before in Ottawa (The Diefenbunker) and in the White Cliffs of Dover. this one however has been preserved to high museum standards and is worth a visit. At the end of the tour there was an excellent display of the devastating effect of Nuclear bombs, the huge inventory that exists in the world to-day in many countries,  and a plea for peace and for there never to be a nuclear war again.