Freizeitbad AQUA MARIEN

The Freizeit- und Erlebnisbad AQUA MARIEN stands in Marienberg in the Saxon Erzgebirge and is run by the town's municipal utility. The operator opened it in 1997, describes it as the largest leisure bath in the Free State of Saxony and puts annual attendance at around 280,000, a quarter of them from the Czech Republic. Since 2023 the whole complex has been rebuilt while remaining open, on a budget of which 17.9 million euro was granted by the Free State of Saxony and the federal government under a regional infrastructure programme, covering 90 per cent of the total cost.

Indoors the centrepiece is a wave pool held at 30 °C, with waves for several minutes every half hour, a shallow entry, a water mushroom, waterfall, water cannon and massage jets, and a current channel that runs twice an hour. The swimmers' pool has four 25-metre lanes, starting blocks and a depth of 1.40 to 1.80 metres at 28 °C, and is used for supra-regional competitions; a viewing window below the waterline allows clubs to check technique. Three warm pools are held at 34 °C: a permanently heated outdoor Sole pool with underwater massage jets, air-bubble loungers, a floor bubbler and a waterfall shower, a second outdoor adventure pool, and a baby and toddler pool with a small slide, water spouts and a play castle. A cascade pool, also at 34 °C, seats about six people around a waterfall lit from below the water. The salt in the outdoor Sole pool is about 2 per cent, which the operator recommends for sensitive skin and neurodermatitis; there is no spring, and the water is salted rather than mineral or thermal.

The sauna world covers more than 1,000 square metres and is described as eight themed and experience saunas indoors and out, running from a 50 °C steam sauna to a Finnish sauna at 95 °C, and including a block-house sauna in the sauna garden with hourly infusions from 11:00 to 21:00, a bio-soft sauna, a Roman steam bath with a salt scrub at 12:30 and 17:30, colour and light therapy, and three adit-themed rooms — an ore adit, a charcoal-burner's hut and a brine adit held at 33 °C air temperature, where atomised iodine-bearing brine is breathed for a recommended fifteen minutes. Cooling is by an outdoor pool at 27 °C, a relaxation pool at 34 °C, a plunge pool at 8 °C, cold showers, a cold tub and Kneipp foot basins. A wellness department adds massages, a hamam, a floating couch and a dream bath.

Bath and sauna open daily from 10:00 to 22:00, with the sauna currently working without its outdoor section, and Mondays are women-only in the sauna except in the Saxon school holidays and on public holidays. The house closes on 24 December, runs 10:00 to 22:00 from 25 to 30 December, closes at 16:00 on 31 December and opens from 14:00 on 1 January. The new slide complex, which replaced the demolished outdoor slide tower, entered service on 4 September 2026.