Sommerbad Vetschau

The Sommerbad Vetschau is a public open-air swimming pool on the southern edge of Vetschau, a town in Brandenburg’s Oberspreewald-Lausitz district. It sits beside the road to Ogrosen, close to the Lobendorf district, surrounded by flat meadows and quiet lanes. The city council runs the baths, which have been a local landmark since the late 1920s. The pool was built between 1926 and 1927 to designs by Alfred Paatz, a Leipzig engineer known for public baths in the Weimar Republic. Funding came partly from job-creation schemes aimed at long-term unemployed workers. The 50-metre main pool covers about 1,250 square metres, making it one of the largest in the region. In 2022 a new mud-play area opened, paid for by Brandenburg’s gambling levy. The entire site, including changing huts and pump house, is now protected as a monument while the city seeks funds for repairs. Visitors find a long rectangular pool divided into swimming and paddling zones, flanked by timber changing cabins with hipped roofs. A small brick ticket booth and pump station stand nearby. The grounds include a snack bar, a grass sunbathing lawn, a climbing frame, table-tennis tables and a beach-volleyball court.