Miskolc is the fourth-largest city in Hungary, spread out enchantingly at the foot of the eastern part of the Bükk Highlands and separated from Budapest by a distance of less than 190 km. Famous for the Barlangfürdö thermal bath– the only aquapark of its type in Europe, created in a natural karstic cave, located in the health resort of (Miskolc-)Tapolca. Notwithstanding the fact that tourism plays an ever greater role in the life of the city, Miskolc until recently remained an important Hungarian industrial center. The first factories and steelworks were built in the eighteenth century, and dynamic development of industry took place in the mid-nineteenth. At that time, the Miskolc Town Hall was built, the county headquarters, theater, and several schools and churches. The city was not destroyed in the First World War, and its infrastructure was preserved intact. Hungarian government policy of the 1930s was favourable to further industrial investment, mainly geared toward promoting heavy industry and arms manufacturing. Only towards the end of World War II did Miskolc become a city on the frontline and suffer intensive damage.