Wiener Kommunalbad

The Wiener Kommunalbad stood beside the Danube at the eastern end of the Reichsbrücke in Leopoldstadt. It opened in 1876 after planners diverted the river into its new channel. The city built the brick basin on land once called Schwimmschulmais, using designs by Franz Berger, later Vienna’s building director. The bath drew fewer than 50 000 visitors each season, far below expectations. Yet it hosted Austria’s first national swimming championships in 1881 and an international gala in 1898 to mark the emperor’s jubilee. Otto Wahle and C. Ruberl set records here before the First World War closed the site in 1914. Visitors found five separate swimming areas inside a single 175-metre basin. Wooden pavilions held 337 changing cubicles and 859 lockers, while a restaurant, café and steam laundry served the bathers. Fresh Danube water flowed through the pool up to thirty times a day, and steam pumps supplied showers and bath tubs.