In the last few years the Swiss town of (how could it otherwise be called?) Baden has been bringing its thermal bathing facilities up to date; more 21st century than 19th ...
Foremost in these efforts has been the construction of the new
Fortyseven Wellness-therme (henceworth referred to as Fortyseven) building, neatly located in the inside of a sharp turn of the Limmat river.
Its grand opening was just last year; never a good time to start a business (think Corona pandemic). Actual construction took three years.
The name, Fortyseven, refers to the temperature in which the waters spring from earth, apparently hottest of Switserland.
This past summer I found myself with a couple of days to spare and decided to spend these in Baden.
Baden is quite lively, exuding charm with a pleasant backdrop (though nothing like Swiss Alp norms ...) with the swift flowing Limmat river gushing along Baden as well as seperating it from the other smaller towns nearby.
Prominently on our must-see itinerary list to Baden was a visit to Fortyseven. Eager to see what a 21st century answer to sedate hot spring bathing might be.
Pre-visit, the research: the Fortyseven website is a plethora of how to's and tips and tricks with little regards as to the website being user friendly.
Once cracking the website, this was the plan then: Sunday mornings summerwise are cheap and the bathing building opens at 08:00. Nine-thirty there's an hour long free public yoga class which you should make reservations for. Catering seems to do neat breakfast.
So entrance tickets were ordered online (summer discount was on offer; otherwise (Sep. 22): 39CHF-45CHF weekends (€40-€46)) for three hours (10CHF for every additional hour). Yoga class reservation made.
We would turn up at 8-sh, have a swim, breakfast thereafter, then yoga, then hit the sauna's. All within the 3 hour timeframe. Achievable?
Experienced
Just past eight we park the car in the underground parking space with it's internal stairway to Fortyseven's reception.
Not too busy, my wife is discussing with restaurant staff what to take for breakfast at restaurant public front.
Don't forget that your
Baden City Ticket entitles you to free towel rental, might come handy.
You receive your electronic bracelet and you can head onwards to the changing rooms. Quite a few cubicles, most intended for smaller groups (2 persons). Beyond are the lockers, all very neat.
We changed into swimmers, then headed to the pool area.
To get there we needed to pass the showers, which didn't seem too handy to use. Kept my eye on them, hardly anybody uses them! How is this acceptable?
Once past the showers, there's a long and broad hallway off which lie a number of indoor pools: some smaller hotter ones, others mid thirties Centigrade which also head off outside to the infinity pool and a cold pool. From the outside infinity pool you can look to the adjacent river Limmat bank, the Limmat river itself and it's ongoings (kayaks passing, swans foraging).
Outside there's also a natural (cool and untreated) pool. And there are a couple of "daybeds" which could be reserved for additional cost (39 CHF/day) .
Feierabend geniessen beim Baden in Baden
As planned it's just a touch of relaxing, swimming a bit and making use of the massage showers.
After a 45 minute soak (note, water temperature was in the lower thirties; due to Europe's sizzling summer), we head to the inside of the on-site restaurant. Surprise: while the exterior of the restaurant opens at 8, the inside only at 9. Tough luck.
We while ourselves a bit and then head upstairs to the yoga area. Despite all the reservations, there seems to be more participants than capacity. So much for reserving. Pity this.
After the good stretch, we head back downstairs for a breakfast. Service though is ok, it still seems to take a while, again not really ok.
Modern-day European hot spring / therme endulgence is never quite complete without a variety of sauna's on offer such that these sauna compliments often become the main attraction.
However marketingwise, the thermal pools are usually meant for the broader public, whereas the sauna's are often directed to the couple's / adults; partially because sauna fanatics insist on a clothesfree environment, which seems unsafe for the younger generations?
So likewise, Fortyseven has a smattering of sauna's on offer as well, though whereas most modern therme's have seperate area's the border's between sauna / thereme in Fortyseven are blurred.
Swimming naked is not on offer (alas).
And the original plans had only a small textile free area, with more space give to textile sauna's. However this set-up resulted in some backlash shortly after last year's opening. Back in
January this was already discussed. Apparently there were extensive complaints around sauna's and clothing.
Adjustments have been made since, so that the easily accesible and best for views Limmat Sauna also became clothesfree.
So where we?
Ah yes, we then seek to find this textile-free sauna area. It's hidden upstairs, potential visitors looking around clueless.
Once found, you have a non-working (?) steam bath, a big panorama sauna with view of the riverside, a cold dip bath, a showering corner and a small outside and inside rest area. Not many visitors make it here it seems. Or not many visitors are interested in enjoying the sauna au naturel.
Then there's an outdoor walkway to a smaller sauna area (the Limmat Sauna), again textile free (but oddly the walkway there not). Here there is a sauna directly above the riverside walkway, though due to the inside nakedness, the window has been partially obscured, so hapless walkers can't look in. Thus meaning you have less opportunity to look out.
Verdict
Eventually after a more than 3 hours stay (means you have to pay a topping up of the entrance fee), we head back out.
Our findings?
Overal I would give this place a seven out of ten. Why?
- The maze like set-up of the therme and the website which also seems to be a maze,
- Not quite cheap, especially because of the yoga hour you end up paying for this extra hour ,
- Poor showering policy (please, please fellow soakers, use a shower on forehand!),
- Lack of a clothes free pool,
- Late opening of interior restaurant (why?)
Positives are the setting (and views), the large panorama sauna, but also the ability to cater to not only the older public but also attract a younger more culturally diverse crowd.
I also tried to see what internet thinks of Fortyseven.
Based on the past 3 months (contentswise):
- Google - overal 4.3 stars (800+ reviews). Discoveries: most reviews are in German, aufguss only in the afternoon, slower service, steambath non-functioning, too many oblivious textilers in the textile-free areas, food smells near pools.
- Tripadvisor - overall 3 stars out of 5 (22 reviews). Mostly in German. Notes: expensive, more or less same as above (men in the women's only section)
- Their Facebook page has (wisely?) no space for reviews ...
Furthermore not too many reviews or reports have been shared online.
Surfs-up
Elsewhere as said there's a lot going for Baden, so no need to only focus on solely on Fortyseven for a succesful sojourn.
- The riverfront just outside Fortyseven (where there are free soaks to be had) is great for viewing kayaking. And river surfing:
- Fortyseven lies beyond the town center, between there's a nice park belonging to the Grand Casino.
- One can also stroll alongside the riverside, at a certain point there's even a lift to the upper bank. Take some time to have a drink/food at Café Kajüte.
- An 200+ year old covered wooden bridge (gedeckte Holzbrücke).
- The Stein castle on top of the hill overlooking Baden.
- Historical Museum (which includes a section on Baden's thermal history.
- The Sunday afternoon was spent at the Museum Langmatt (think French impressionists) which also actively encourages visitors to lie arond in the surrounding gardens.
Baden's
Cityticket has more worthwhile discounts. Not very well-known the ticket can be obtained from local hotels and enables you f.i. (besides the above mentioned) free entance to the Langmatt Museum or free local public transport.
Idleness
Finally, a forgotten part: downstairs in the parking area behind a door there's a glassfront from which you can see the original preserved thermal baths. I believe it concerns the Kesselbad, dating back to Medieval times (12/13th century,
source).
'During the excavations in the Limmatknie, the remains of several bathing pools and other buildings from the 2000-year-old Roman thermal baths were uncovered. The dimensions of the examined ruins testify to a monumental thermal complex that is hardly inferior to facilities in other large Roman thermal spa towns such as Bath (GB) or Aachen (D).
The excavations and building studies on the urban development of the spa quarter in the High Middle Ages provided completely new insights. It could be proven that in the 11th century the area under the Verenahof area was drained and that the springs there were possibly reused in order to build new baths and inns here. For the first time, the origin of the spatial structure of the spa district, which is still valid today, can be grasped.
The most impressive witnesses to the medieval baths are the bathhouse from the 13th or early 14th century in the Hotel Ochsen and the "Kesselbad" in the bathing inn in the backyard, which is to be made accessible to the public again as it looked around 1500 in the planned new building of the thermal baths'.
As stated above, Baden's soaking history already goes back a long time. Interesting in this is a
blog (Andrea Schaer, Mar. 11, 2022) by Switserland's National Museum. It describes the history of the existence of Baden's baths, first noted during Roman times:
'The Romans built extensive thermal bath complexes at the 47°C mineral hot springs in the curve of the Limmat. Aquae Helveticae (Latin for the “healing waters in the land of the Helvetii”) soon became a popular health resort and tourist destination. Politician and historiographer Publius Cornelius Tacitus (c. 58 AD to c. 120 AD) described the place as: “locus, amoeno salubrium aquarium usu frequens”, a small town that was frequented for the “delightful location of its healing springs”. Local people and travellers from further afield, but also soldiers, military officers and government officials on vacation or passing through, sought out the thermal baths of Aquae Helveticae. It is likely that members of the prominent families of the Helvetic Civitas also appreciated the slower pace of life and the pleasant idleness, the otium, in the spa resort on the Limmat. But these guests have left few archaeological traces that provide information about their origin and the motivation for their stay in Aquae.
...
In the Middle Ages and up until the 17th century, Baden was a popular gathering place for the great and the powerful.
...
From the 15th century onwards, scores of travel reports and spa recommendations carried Baden’s reputation out into the wider world. The apostolic secretary and distinguished humanist Giovanni Francesco Poggio Bracciolini (1380-1459), who visited Baden in 1416 and, in a letter, described the local baths as the very likeness of the Garden of Eden full of happy people, got the ball rolling. Poggio’s description quickly found its way into every corner of Europe, becoming the actual publicity piece for Baden that still carries weight today – and Baden became the ideal of the late medieval mineral springs resort.
...
“Taking the waters” gave the aristocracy and the upper middle classes an opportunity to escape from domestic duties and shake loose from societal constraints for a while, and to combine the functional – looking after their health – with the pleasurable – socialising and spending time among like-minded people. A spa trip, referred to as a Badenfahrt, was always associated with entertainment, because the spa-goers anticipated not only healing baths but also all kinds of distractions such as theatre performances, parlour games and games of chance, and magnificent banquets and balls. But less well-to-do people also found their way to the healing waters and were able to be part of the hustle and bustle and diverse pastimes of the spa resort, at least on the periphery'.
The Bäderplatz in Baden with the public baths, the outdoor pool in the background and the St Verenabad in the foreground; this is where the poorer and needy guests spent their spa stay. Aquatint, Heinrich Keller, 1805.
As I understand in the situation above, the elite bathed indoors, the rif-raf outdoors (and free); sharing is caring? Though in the evenings elite women would head over to the then empty St Verena baths, as they have specific qualities believed to be of assitance to this gender.
Beyond the soaking history there is an extensive German language
Wikipedia entry on the thermal baths of Baden. Some pointers:
There are 21 sources, 18 of which are on the western side om the Limmat (Baden), three on the eastern bank (Ennetbaden).
Finally, in a separate post (still upcoming) I'll share our experiences concerning the free outdoor hot pots.
