Volksbad St. Gallen
The Volksbad St. Gallen is the oldest indoor swimming pool in Switzerland that still exists . It was opened in 1906 as the second public bathing establishment in Switzerland, 42 years after the one in Winterthur , which was closed in 1915. It was built in the style of a stately town house with a variety of decorations by the then city architect Albert Pfeiffer. It is located in the Singenberg district, between the old town, the museum district and today's hospital.
history
planning
In the middle of the 19th century, various medical professionals began to recognize the connection between hygiene and health. For this, according to their recommendations, the people should be given enough options for personal hygiene, especially the bathroom. In many places, bathing opportunities, especially in winter, were still rare or very expensive. Not every house had its own bathroom by far, and that would last well into the second half of the 20th century. The drinking water supply in the city of St. Gallen had only been secured in the long term since 1895 through the construction of the water pipeline from Lake Constance.
Thus, between 1850 and 1900 , public bathhouses were opened in various cities in Europe, starting in Liverpool , recalling the great times of the Roman baths . The need arose in St. Gallen to set up such an institution. The first indoor swimming pool in Switzerland was opened in Winterthur in 1864 , but as a city of the world - St. Gallen was very prosperous at the time due to the bloom of embroidery - it oriented itself towards the much larger pools in Stuttgart , Heilbronn , Frankfurt am Main , Offenbach am Main and Gießen , where a study trip of important politicians and scholars was organized.
On October 27, 1898, city architect Albert Pfeiffer was commissioned to carry out the project. He was supposed to design a bathroom the size of that in Heilbronn and Gießen. Half a year later, Pfeiffer presented a project to the local council that was to include swimming pools , bathtubs , shower baths (showers), Roman-Irish baths and medicinal baths . The local council recommended that the citizens approve a loan of CHF 500,000 for this. The citizens of St. Gallen rejected the project, however, as it was too expensive for many. In addition, the need for medicinal baths and hot air baths was not seen as a given, as these would not have been affordable for a large part of the population. Pfeiffer should therefore build a smaller, cheaper bathroom, which should also benefit citizens directly through lower admission prices.
At the extraordinary community meeting on September 13, 1903, the new project, which was to cost 463,000 francs , was finally approved. Although there were still voices who considered the proposed admission prices too high, the mayor opposed this with the argument that special opening times were planned for "low prices".
construction
Construction began on September 30, 1904. It took longer than planned because the building site turned out to be poor, once a complete side wall collapsed and the weather was bad. For this, the construction site was still months as a strike . After completion, a commission of inquiry was set up to discuss why the construction had cost 641,000 francs, almost 200,000 francs more than budgeted. Pfeiffer was able to keep himself harmless by proving that new demands were made to him in the course of construction, but the budget was not increased.
opening
The public bath was opened on October 18, 1906, after the population had been able to visit "their" new bath the previous weekend. At the opening, the inevitable quote was also given to great hymns of praise: Mens sana in corpore sano by Councilor Adolf Kaiser. At the opening, entry to the swimming pool cost 50 cents for adults and 30 cents for schoolchildren, bath tubs cost 60 and 40 cents respectively and a shower was available for 15 cents. The opening times were strictly separated according to gender, bathing for both sexes was common unthinkable at that time. This was to remain that way for decades; the so-called family bathroom was only introduced on individual half-days in the 1930s.
The seaside resorts on Lake Constance provided the necessary impetus for this. Gender segregation was also strictly enforced in the much older urban open-air swimming pools in Drei Weieren . Their names are still reminiscent of this today: women's pond, buebeweiher, men's pond.
Further course
Part of the building was damaged twice by fire, once by an earthquake. The range of bathtubs and showers has been expanded several times due to increased demand, but today this service is almost forgotten, as every house naturally has a bathroom .
The number of visitors rose continuously in the first few years, up to its peak in 1913. After that, as a result of the First World War , it collapsed markedly - many foreign workers had moved away and in some cases the bathroom had to close for a long time because there was no coal for heating . After the war, the number of visitors increased again, only to suffer another setback after the Second World War . The bathroom recovered again from the crisis, the absolute record year was 1971, with over 189,000 admissions. After that, the number of admissions dropped abruptly to a good 40,000, since the new municipal indoor swimming pool Blumenwies opened in 1973, more modern, larger and more diverse than the old one. Since then, admissions have mostly been constant at this low level - with a slip up in the mid-1990s, during the renovation of the flower meadow. Nevertheless, it was decided not to privatize or close the bathroom. The advantages of the Volksbad over the Blumenwies are its central location and the lower entrance fees.
architecture
| Technical specifications | |||
| opening | 1906 | ||
| Size of the swimming pool | 9.80 mx 20.40 m | ||
| Greatest depth | 2.8m | ||
| Capacity | 330m 3 | ||
| Changing rooms | 36 | ||
| Tub baths | 8 1906 | ||
| have a shower | 16 | ||
The public bath should have an upper-class charisma. The facade shows an exciting mix of different style elements such as neo-renaissance , neo-baroque and art nouveau . It is generously sized and decorated with various figures. Frogs and mermaids adorn the side facing the street. The interior is a prime example of the design of an Art Nouveau bathroom and needs comparisons with other representative Art Nouveau indoor pools from that time, such as B. not to shy away from the Volksbad Nürnberg . Hallways, changing rooms and bathing rooms are equipped with Embracher panels. In the entrance area, the visitor discovers the city's heraldic animal , the bear, playing with the water in a sculpture. Passing the cash register on both sides, you first come to the waiting rooms for showers and bathrooms, behind which you enter the swimming pool. The hall, supported by a large reinforced concrete roof , is bordered by the changing rooms. Through this you stand in front of the bathroom. On the front there are showers and a pulpit with changing facilities for school classes and clubs.
There is another sculpture by the stairs leading into the water: two boys are playing with a turtle that spits water from its mouth into the pool.
Since the opening, only small structural changes have been made, so that the swimming pool looks almost exactly the same as it did when it opened (see picture). Only the showers have been replaced with more modern models and the curtains in front of the changing rooms with wooden doors to prevent theft.
See also
literature
- Rolf Wirth: The Volksbad St. Gallen; From a pioneering act to a cultural asset. St. Gallen, 2006 ISBN 978-3-7291-1113-4
Web links
- City of St. Gallen: Volksbad
Coordinates: 47 ° 25 '42.1 " N , 9 ° 23' 4.5" E ; CH1903: 746 806 / 254883