Elisabeth Hall
It is the secret star among Aachen's swimmers: The Elisabethhalle in Elisabethstraße - just a stone's throw from the cathedral and Elisenbrunnen fountain. The ornate original chandeliers, dark wood paneling and mosaic-decorated columns are immediately apparent in the entrance area: You are swimming in history here.
The Greek-Roman god of medicine, Asclepius or Asclepius with staff and viper, has been welcoming guests in the entrance area since 1910. Even back then, swimming was said to be healthy! The path to the large pool leads through a corridor with shiny purple tiles from the year of its inauguration - pure, genuine Art Nouveau.
The audience ranges from students and professionals to pensioners, all of whom want to swim first and foremost - rather few children who want to splash around. However, many children come during school time, as the 123-year-old swimming pool is still the place for swimming lessons for inner-city schools. Incidentally, many people still remember it decades later: "That's where I learned to swim" is a phrase often heard when talking about the Elisabethhalle.
The hall is also popular with the staff: "This has always been my favorite hall, because of the atmosphere and the lovely audience," enthuses shift supervisor Daniela Pöhland about her workplace: "It's a very special hall." She lets her gaze wander over the old tiled pool in the shade of a large Neptune fountain and the marble changing rooms with old wooden shelves and mirrors, the wrought-iron railings on the stairs and the surrounding gallery, as if she needed to reassure herself of the many beautiful details.
© City of Aachen / Sarah Koll
Also a "regular audience": countless tourists who have heard about this Art Nouveau gem and "just want to take a look at the hall and take a few photos". Of course they do - always with respect for the swimmers! The "women's hall" is also one of the worthwhile motifs, but now only school classes or courses jump into the pool here. Because until the 1950s, the rule was: swim separately!
What even the non-swimming photo enthusiasts only get to see on the rare guided tours through the hall: The underworld. Just down a short flight of stairs you come to the bath and shower section, which was still open until the second half of the 20th century and where many people took their weekly, thorough bath, because at home there was often only one toilet halfway up the stairs.
Further down, a world opens up that seems to have nothing to do with the splendor of the above-ground baths: towel drying cabinets out of order, old coal chutes through which the coal for heating the pools used to be transported directly from Hartmannstraße to the cellar. During the Second World War, the rooms were also used as an air raid shelter. Today, however, you will search in vain for the dog bath. Even hall expert and pool manager Ingo Diesburg can only guess where it was located in the basement. But in fact, in the early decades, it was customary for Fiffi and Waldi to be groomed in the basement while their owners bathed upstairs. Wellness for dogs and humans!
Swimming pool
Large hall
27.5 x 12.5 meters
Temperature approx. 28° CAttractions
1 m springboard
3 questions for Ingo Diesburg, manager of the Elisabethhalle
© City of Aachen / Sarah Koll
What makes the Elisabethhalle special?
"What makes the Elisabethhalle special is the architecture and the Art Nouveau style, which can be found in all the rooms of the hall. Most swimming pools in the Art Nouveau style have been modernized in some way. This makes us one of the few swimming pools that still has the same style as it did back then. The location is also ideal for the people of Aachen. They can reach the Elisabethhalle in the middle of the city on foot or simply by bus. We also often have visitors who learned to swim here as children or teenagers, who then find their way back to the Elisabethhalle. That's always nice too."
What has changed since the Elisabethhalle opened in 1911? What has been retained?
Ingo Diesburg has been the manager of the Elisabethhalle since 2009. He knows the Elisabethhalle inside out. "Back then, the swimming halls were separate. There was the so-called women's and men's swimming hall. There were also many baths and showers in the basement, where people could take a bath if they didn't have the opportunity at home. Today, the small hall is only accessible for schools, clubs or aqua courses and the baths are no longer in use. That is the biggest difference between then and now. Apart from that, everything you see here is original. Of course, they try to keep the hall technically up to date, but everything that happens here is done with the preservation of historical monuments in mind."
Who are your guests? Is there a special offer in the near future?
"The early swimmers are usually senior citizens and professionals, but throughout the day the audience is actually mixed. We're open relatively late in the evenings, which is when a lot of students actually come. We also welcome them twice a year at the start of the summer semester and the start of the winter semester. Then there are two special days where students are invited to swim for just one euro."