Kallbadhuset Borgholm

Borgholm’s kallbadhus has been destroyed twice, rebuilt three times and refuses to stay dead. Perched on pilings over the Kalmar Strait, the cold-water bathhouse invites swimmers to plunge directly into the sea from wooden platforms while changing in sheltered cabins above the waves.

The first structure opened in Borgholm’s western harbor in 1882, designed by Kalmar engineer John Löfmark. A storm obliterated it in February 1934, but the town rebuilt a smaller version in time for midsummer. Twenty years later, another storm lifted the entire bathhouse from its foundations and washed it ashore.

With municipal coffers thin, city engineer Bertil Smedberg proposed rebuilding with the waterlogged timber salvaged from the wreck. Reusing the wood cut construction costs in half, and a simpler third iteration opened for the 1954 swimming season, a bathhouse literally constructed from its own remains.

By the early 2000s, rusted beams and rotting decks forced the municipality to choose between closure and reconstruction. With help from EU funding, it chose another rebirth. Designed by city architect Leo Eriksson, the present bathhouse opened during midsummer week in 2003, the fourth structure to occupy the same stubborn spot in Borgholm’s harbor.