Vltava: Prague’s natural swimming pool, where was it the oldest?

When the people of Prague go to the water in the hot summer, they most often choose one of Prague’s swimming pools with a pool with chlorinated water or biotopes. It used to be the exact opposite. The inhabitants went to the Vltava in huge numbers. During the 19th century, many river bathing establishments grew up on both banks. The residents had no fear of catching anything. In the past, the water in the river was far away cleaner and also warmer. 200 years ago there were crowds of vacationers on both shores.

Na Františku swimming pool

As author Marie Valentová from the Center for Architecture and Urban Planning (CAMP) states in an article on the praha.camp website, refreshments in the Vltava River were originally reserved only for soldiers and their families. In 1809, it was founded on Na Františka by Ernst von Pfuel, who served in Prague as a centurion in one of the infantry regiments. Thanks to it, Prague overtook not only Vienna, but also the whole of Europe. It was the first swimming pool in Central Europe.

The floating house was a simple raft structure. Nothing complicated, but that’s why the structure was almost always damaged during floods, as a result of which its operation was restricted. Later, it moved below Letná and opened its doors to ordinary citizens in 1817.

Civic swimming pool under Letna

Thanks to the original military swimming pool, interest in swimming in the Vltava began to grow. “A committee was formed from people who were dissatisfied due to the limited capacity associated with the swimming pool under Letná, which asked the municipality to establish a new swimming pool,” the National Monument Institute states on its website. Construction was authorized in 1840. When finished, it was mostly wooden. Trees were planted here to strengthen the bank. The swimming pool stood under the Letná slope.

In 1876, an extension and partial reconstruction took place. Plovárna Pražany beckoned for a restaurant or clubhouse. After the creation of Rudolf’s footbridge on the site of today’s Mánes bridge, the place became accessible to residents of the opposite bank. They could use three swimming pools separated by gender, small pools for children and plots in the meadow.

Slavonka at Žofín

The third oldest swimming pool (1899) on the Vltava, in the very center of the city, stood a short distance upstream on Slovanské ostrov near Žofín. “Slovanka” was at its time the largest river floating barge in Central Europe. Up to 1,200 people could fit here and the pier lined almost half of the island. There were also swimming pools on the Vltava under Vyšehrad – Vyšehrad River Baths (1894), Mejzlík Swimming Pool (1922) and in Podolí.

Podolské Spa

The later mayor of Prague and the first mayor of the Czech Sokol, Jan Podplipný, had the Vyšehrad River Baths built. Unlike the swimming pools further downstream, the site offered no shore facilities. On the other hand, the Vltava was much cleaner here, because there were no sewers before and all the waste went right into the river.

The complex had three swimming pools, changing rooms, changing rooms, showers and bucket toilets. Up to 800 guests could fit here. But they were separated from the surrounding town by a board fence so that half-naked swimmers would not offend other residents. Next to the First Podolská lázně, there was a Railway Spa, which, according to contemporary testimonies, offered even greater comfort.

In order to distinguish the two swimming pools from each other, their wooden enclosures were painted in different colors, thus creating the Yellow and Blue baths. Zluté lázně, in the modern form of a multi-purpose area, is the last Vltava swimming pool in Prague that has survived to the present day with a break.