Augustabad

The Augustabad, also known as the Kaiserin-Augusta-Bad, was a women’s baths next to the Friedrichsbad in Baden-Baden’s Bäderviertel (spa quarter). Built between 1890 and 1893, it fell into disrepair and was demolished in 1962.

History

With a ban on the casino looming, Baden-Baden turned its attention back to the thermal baths, and the Friedrichsbad went up between 1869 and 1877. State of the art for its day, it drew great interest from visitors and had reached the limit of its capacity by the early 1880s. From 1885 the Baden interior ministry therefore began to weigh alternatives. It settled on a women’s-only baths beside the Friedrichsbad, on the neighbouring grounds of the Gasthaus Salmen, and on converting the Friedrichsbad — planned from the outset as a double facility — into a men’s-only baths. Josef Durm, head of the Baden building directorate, drew up the plans for the awkward triangular plot between the Friedrichsbad, the Kloster vom Heiligen Grab and Zähringerstraße. The Augustabad was then built between 1890 and 1893. By the 1930s it had fallen into disrepair, and demolition was under discussion. It came in 1962. The site remains undeveloped today. A figure from the building’s façade recalls where it once stood.

Image gallery

Sources

• Ulrich Coenen Von Aquae bis Baden-Baden - die Baugeschichte der Stadt und ihr Beitrag zur Entwicklung der Kurarchitektur Aachen, Mainz 2008, ISBN 3-8107-0023-1, pp. 436 ff.

Web links

• Kaiserin-Augustabad in Baden-Baden on ARD Mediathek — an Abendschau report of 1 February 1962 on the demolition of the baths, with interior footage (from the series SWR Retro – Abendschau)