Saltsjöbadens Kallbadhus: Recreation and History in One Spot

Saltsjöbaden was founded in the 1890s as a seaside resort and villa town for wealthy Stockholmers —thanks to Knut Wallenberg’s vision. It quickly became a popular destination for leisure and health. A hotel (Grand Hotel) was opened in 1893 and 1895, two separate wooden kallbadhus (cold water beach houses) were built at Badholmen, the little island located near the hotel. One house for women, opened 1896 and rebuilt in 1916, and one for men, completed in 1925. Designed by the architect Torben Grut, the large men´s bathhouse served as both a cold-bath facility and in the beginning even as a community swimming stadium when constructed in 1925. Restorations in the early 2000s returned much of the original aesthetic and colour scheme to both bathhouses, emphasizing traditional early-20th-century design. The outside colours are beige and red, the inside is painted in a dark blue-purple. Open-air cold bathing (kallbad) is a Swedish tradition which dates back to the mid-19th century, when physicians promoted saltwater plunges for therapeutic benefits. Saltsjöbadens kallbadhus represents a fascinating chapter in this Swedish wellness history with its gender‑segregated wooden bathhouses set on a coastal pier. Thus it is a classic example of these institutions and its preservation offers a window into the leisure life of a historic era which is coined of new ideas concerning health, leisure and holiday outside the polluted and crowded cities in times of industrialism (unfortunately not accessible and affordable for working class people - who surely would have needed health care and retreat the most...). The Saltsjöbaden Friluftsbadet can be described as a blend of wellness, architecture, and social leisure - which is a typical of turn-of-the-century seaside resort style which even could be seen in other European countries and the USA. Unfortunately many bathhouses disappeared (burned down) over the last century. Since the Saltsjöbaden Kallbad buildings are rare survivors on Sweden’s East Coast, they are officially protected as listed heritage sites. There even is strong public support from some local institutions in Saltsjöbaden, which engage in protecting the buildings and to keep them open to public, which requires constant maintenance of the mostly wooden facilities. The beautiful buildings with the little beach, a restaurant, saunas and a little zoo (with also is a shelter for homeless chickens and rabbits) continues to draw families and enthusiasts of tradition and design alike. The male and female bathhouses in Saltsjöbaden still remain separate, offering gender-specific changing areas and saunas, with a shared sandy beach area between them. Both have neck bath under certain periods every day.