Kongreßbad: the ‘people's bath’ of the summer

On this ground was once a garbage dump and sand pit. Then came 1928, massive unemployment, and the city needed to put people to work.

The Kongreßbad opened in May 1928 as part of an emergency work program. It was not just about swimming. The massive housing blocks going up around here, especially the Sandleiten Hof, needed somewhere for working families to cool off in summer. The solution: a 100 meter pool, longer than a football field, filled with mountain spring water heated in electric boilers.

The entrance in front of you, with its red and white wooden facade and flagpoles facing the suburban railway line, became an icon of Red Vienna's social programs. Schwimm, Sonnen und Luftbad it says above the doors: Swimming, Sun, and Air Bath.

In the 1930s they installed floodlights for night swimming. Locals started calling it Kongerl or Konge. The 10 meter diving tower stood here until 1981. The original 100 meter pool got divided into two equal halves during renovations in 1987.