Romuald Gutt

Polish architect Romuald Gutt, considered a representative of modernism, was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts and the Technical University in Warsaw. He spent his youth in Switzerland and studied in Winterthur, returning to Poland in 1909. After World War I, Gutt mostly built private and public buildings as well as military cemeteries. In 1928 he was instrumental in organizing the Society of Modern Housing and later worked in the department for town planning in Warszawa. After World War II, he began a teaching career and in 1952 was appointed a member of the Academy of Science.

His work for the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, a brine outdoor pool for the spa town of Ciechocinek was created in 1930-32 together with Aleksander Szniolis. At the time, the bath was the largest of its kind in Europe. It consisted of a swimming pool, a building with changing rooms and a café with veranda, terraces and a restaurant. The salt content of the water in the 100 x 40 m pool of reinforced concrete was about the same as that of the Mediterranean Sea at a temperature of 36° C. Although the swimming pool was listed as a historical monument in 1993, it had to be closed in 2001 because of its poor technical condition. So far, all attempts to re-commission it have failed due to the high cost of modernization.