Baumgartner Bad

The Baumgartner Bad was a summer swimming pool in Vienna’s 14th district, Penzing. It stood in the Baumgarten neighbourhood close to Ober St. Veit underground station on Hackinger Straße. The site lay next to the crossing with Hochsatzengasse, where the West railway line passed overhead on an elevated viaduct. The pool opened in 1875 when Baumgarten was still a separate suburb. After the Vienna River was channelled in the 1890s, the railway station opened in 1898, bringing more visitors to the area. The city took over the baths in 1938 and rebuilt them after 1945. New council housing nearby doubled the number of swimmers, so two indoor halls were added between 1950 and 1957. These provided 70 changing cubicles and 135 lockers, while outside there were two main pools and a children’s paddling pool. At its peak the site covered 9100 square metres, with 900 square metres of buildings, and could hold about 1800 people. On the hottest Sunday of 1994 more than a thousand swimmers came through the gates. Inside the grounds visitors found generous lawns under mature trees beside the pools. The baths closed in 1997 and the land was later used for a furniture store. The replacement public pool, Waldbad Penzing, opened in 1998 further out along Linzer Straße.