Spanien Public Baths

Spanien Public Baths
Badeanstalten Spanien
Badeanstalten Spanien
General information
Architectural style	Functionalism
Location	Aarhus, Denmark
Construction started	1931
Completed	1933
Inaugurated	15 September 1933
Technical details
Floor count	4
Floor area	5,984 m2 (64,410 sq ft)
Design and construction
Architect	Frederik Draiby
Website
Aarhus Municipality Website for Spanien

Spanien Public Baths (Danish: Badeanstalten Spanien), colloquially known simply as Spanien, is a public bath house and a listed building in Aarhus, Denmark. The bath house was completed in 1931 and was listed on the Danish national registry of protected buildings and places by the Danish Heritage Agency on 15 February 1989.

In 1926, the at the time only public bath house in Aarhus closed and it was decided that a new one was to be built on an available lot on the street of Spanien. The project was budgeted at 750,000 Danish Kroner. Construction commenced in 1931 and was completed in 1933 but at a cost twice as high as initially projected. The finished building included an Olympic-size swimming pool, public showers on the ground floor, a luxury department on the 3rd floor, restaurant, hairdresser and other facilities.

Spanien was constructed with the newest technology in mind. There was a system to create artificial pine-scented rain, underwater lighting, heated floors surrounding the pools, seawater was piped from the condensers of the nearby power plant, in the saunas chairs made of steel pipes were water cooled and every department had a phone line. The technological solutions drew much attention at the time and some 60,000 visitors, mainly from Jutland, came to see the new state of the art bath house and pool.

In the 1930s, the swimming pool was frequently used for international competitions and numerous world records were set there. Prominent local swimmers at the time was Kirsten Busch-Sørensen, Fritze Nathansen og Eva Arndt.

Spanien Public Baths is a massive four story building with a six story tower. The walls are of red bricks topped with a plated copper hip roof. The tower has a flat copper plated roof. The building is an example of Danish functionalism with traditional Danish materials mixed in a spartan, clean style. The large main building is mostly free of decorations in the spirit of functionalism but the tower features flat brick columns reminiscent of classical pilastres. The interior is painted very colorful, breaking stylistically with the simple exterior and communicating the purpose of various areas and spaces.