Piscine Crachoir
This classic swimming pool was built during WWI 1914-1918 in Neo-Renaissance style to keep the ordinary people out of the German factories. The amazing pool has 2 entrances for men & women seperately as cleanness was the norm. The standard worker family was so poor they couldn’t even afford to buy soap. From 1927 there was finally a watervalve, before everyone washed hands and face under the pipe. The church hammered on the fact that nudity is impurity, ordinary people where forbidden to stand in front of the waiting rows. To prevent cholera the city started a puritycampaign. For a few cents they could take a shower, not so luxurous as for the rich people. They needed to enter the pool via the back entrance with unheated facilities. Still nice details are present like the spitbins (crachoirs) on the beautiful painted tiles, the rescuer statue (made in 1919) and many wood sculpture works. In the 50’s, due to a lack of maintenance, the impressive metallic structure of the ceiling had to be demolished. By this the building lost it’s magnificence. The pool closed in 2001 due to safety standards being outdated and fell into oblivion. One of the most beautiful parts is the long green Art Nouveau hall. The doors are incredible and the hallway is lit by skylight in the ceiling. Surprisingly this place is quite well preserved, maybe because of it’s beauty that gained respect… The city is renovating this beauty at the moment, so it will be saved for the future.