| Therme Vals | ||
 |
||
|
As
is the case with many places that I have decided to visit, I saw
a photograph and decided that I had to go and see this place for
myself. But no photographs can really prepare you for Therme Vals,
it's all about experiencing the beautiful architecture for yourself.
I spent two nights at the Therme in 2001, not long after 9/11. I had been working on my novel and needed a short rest before the final push to get it published. Therme Vals, situated in a tiny mountain village in south east Switzerland, was the place. It amazed me that I could get a train from Zurich airport right to the entrance of Therme Vals itself, by way of a bus for the last leg of the journey. Those people aren't not joking when they talk about Swiss efficiency, although I wouldn't like to take that mountain bus ride on slippery roads in the winter. The thing that's special about Therme Vals is that it is owned by the villagers. The region is famous for its mineral springs, but in the 1980s the local community bought up a bankrupt hotel and commissioned the architect Peter Zumthor to build a new bathhouse. Zumthor used masses of local stone in his design, as well as concrete, leather, copper and glass, and created a marvellous complex of pools and baths, and a series of therapy rooms too. I stayed at the Hotel Therme, in one of the special rooms also designed by Zumthor, known as Temporaries. My room gave me early morning access to the baths, when they were quiet and untouched. So you enter the baths complex through a dark tunnel. A copper turnstile lets you in, past inlets where the iron-rich water stains the stone. You change out of your clothes in a womb-like red-leather lined rooms, and then step through to the pool area. The main indoor pool is made of slabs of rock. Green underwater lighting and shafts of blue light filtering in from portholes in the ceiling make floating in it an indescribable pleasure. The pool is surrounded by a series of pillars concealing small rooms called Stones, each of which contains another kind of pool: a pool that is very hot one that is cold, and a darkened room in which you can lie and listen to clanky and hypnotic Stone Music. One of these pools reduced me to tears with its beauty early one morning as I stepped into it alone: the flower pool. Submerged lights illuminate thousands upon thousands of Jasmine flowers floating in the fragrant water. It was like being in a warm snowstorm. The reassurance of body in light, heat, water, perfume was a holy, perfect, soul-touching delight and as close as I ever get to a religious experience.  There are other pools too. A rock-lined water tunnel leads you outside, where copper pipes splash water against your tired back, pummelling hard like a massage. On a cold day steam rises from the water. From this pool you can see the land around you, all so beautiful. Resting areas feature windows that frame the mountains. Birds fly below. Inside there are pools hidden around corners, pools that you wouldn't know where there until you waded through a tunnel and found them. One pool is at the bottom of a long echoing chamber, people sing and clap, relishing the acoustics. In another room there is a fountain with copper cups attached to it so that not only can you bathe in the water, you can taste it too. On the upper level are the steam rooms. These are built from black stone. The light is so dim and this, coupled with the steam, makes the first walk-through feel like a sensual discovery, you feel frightened, you are unsure and apprehensive, things come out of the darkness at you, there may be people here watching but you cannot be sure, you're worried about touching something scalding. I like architecture that dares to heighten and then calm fretfulness, because then you find your balance, and sit on the hot smooth stone, stop feeling afraid and allow it all to envelop you. Therme Vals has much better photographs,go and have a look. |
   |
|