Solebad Werne

Solebad Werne stands on the site of a bathing tradition that the operator traces back to 1874, when a drilling company looking for coal and minerals struck warm brine. The present building is a new construction: the old brine bath closed in April 2015, work on the replacement began in 2017 at a stated total cost of around 17 million euro, and the new bath opened on 14 April 2019.

The centrepiece is the brine pool, given as 560 m2 of water surface and divided into three functional zones for lane swimming, bubble loungers and water gymnastics. The operator states a salt content of up to 6 per cent and a water temperature of up to 33 degrees, and describes the water as Natursole. The origin has changed over time: the original spring ran dry in May 1905, brine was later pumped up from the Werne colliery and fed to the open-air pool from 1935, and since 2000, when Ruhrkohle AG stopped supplying it, the brine has been delivered to Werne from Lower Saxony by tanker lorry. Massage jets, bubble loungers and cascade showers are fitted in the brine area, and free brine gymnastics runs Tuesday to Friday.

The other pools are listed rather than totalled: a 25-metre sports pool with five lanes and a movable floor section, a one-metre springboard and a three-metre diving tower, a small children's pool of 40 m2 and a multi-purpose pool of 100 m2, an 80-metre slide with timing, and in the open-air section a 50-metre sports pool with eight lanes plus a children's pool with a water play garden. Warmth is provided by a single textile sauna, where guests keep swimwear on, together with a steam bath; infusions run at fixed times from Tuesday to Sunday. Rest areas include a fireplace room, water beds and a conservatory, and there is a Solelounge for food.

Opening hours are 6 to 20 on Tuesday and Wednesday, 6 to 21 on Thursday and Friday, 7 to 21 on Saturday and 7 to 20 on Sunday and public holidays. Monday is closed in the winter season and open 14 to 20 in the summer season, or 10 to 20 during North Rhine-Westphalia school holidays. The open-air pool runs from mid-May to the end of September; the indoor bath is open all year. Note that the history page gives two different dates for the original strike, 3 January 1875 in its introductory text and 3 January 1874 in its timeline.