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Kaiserbad (Marienbad)

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The Kaiserbad was a Jewish ritual bath (mikvah) and belonged to the Jewish community of Chernivtsi. It was built in the 1840s and was one of the first stone buildings in Chernivtsi. It was located at 1 Marienplatz, next to the Turkish bath, the first public bath in Chernivtsi to be open all year round. The bath was open every day except Saturdays and Jewish holidays and, according to its own advertisements, was “the most comfortable and largest of all Chernivtsi sweat baths” for 80 people' (Bukowinaer Rundschau, 19 November 1885, p. 10).

Religious buildings & cemeteries

built

1840 - unknown

The “steam, stone, shower and tub baths” (Bukowina Post, 3 September 1896, p. 6) were regularly rented for periods of three to six years. From the 1880s the tenants changed very frequently (S. Altmann, Emanuel Zeller, Saul Schajowicz, Isak Essenfeld, Hirsch Barasch). Every year a so-called “pachtschilling” had to be paid to the religious community, which in 1899 amounted to 3,068 guldens (Bukowinaer Post, 9 March 1899, p. 4). After extensive renovation of the baths, the local press published a new public advertisement by the President of the Jewish Community, Benno Straucher, for the lease of the baths for a period of three to six years from 1 December 1906 (Czernowitzer Presse, 15 November 1906, p. 4). After World War I, the facility was renamed “Marienbad”, renovated and reopened on 18 April 1920 (Ostjüdische Zeitung, 7 May 1920, p. 6). In 1921 a second bath was opened and “the women's ritual bath was extended by a new building under rabbinical supervision” (Ostjüdische Zeitung, 9 December 1921, p. 4). The ritual bath remained in operation until the early 1940s. Today, the site is home to the municipal company Delphin.

Text: Markus Winkler