Timișoara's Abandoned Pool

An empty swimming pool is a particular kind of image. Without water, the thing that made it a pool is gone, and what remains is pure geometry: blue tiles, lane markings, a ladder leading nowhere. In Timișoara, in western Romania, there is a public lido that has looked like this for years.

The public lido

Public swimming pools were once a proud feature of European cities — places built by municipalities so that everyone, not just the wealthy, could swim. Romania built its share of them, and Timișoara's lido was part of that tradition: an open-air pool where generations learned to swim and spent their summers.

Then, as so often happened, the economics changed. Maintenance costs rose, budgets fell, and the pool closed. The water was drained, and it was never refilled.

What an empty pool looks like

Without water, a pool reveals itself. You can see the slope of the floor, the depth markers, the tiled walls and the channels where the water once flowed. In Timișoara, the tiles are still blue, and the pool still reads unmistakably as a place built for swimming.

Over the years, weather and plants have begun to move in. Grass and weeds push through the cracks, and the paint and tile slowly fail. It is a gentle kind of decay — nature taking back a place that was never meant to be natural.

Summers that ended

An abandoned pool is a memory machine. Everyone who sees one thinks of a summer — of the smell of chlorine, the sound of water, the heat of the tiles underfoot. That is why these places are so evocative, and why photographers return to them.

But there is a harder truth underneath. A closed public pool is a service that people lost. The image is beautiful; the reason for it is not.

Empty pools are hazardous

Drained pools have steep sides, broken tiles and no water to cushion a fall. Do not climb into them.

Never jump or climb into an empty pool — falls are serious.
Old pool buildings may contain asbestos and unstable structures.
View from outside and respect any fencing or signage.

Frequently asked questions

Where is this pool?

It is an abandoned public lido in Timișoara, in western Romania.

Why was it abandoned?

Rising maintenance costs and falling municipal budgets led to its closure; the water was drained and never refilled.

Why do photographers like empty pools?

Without water, the pool's geometry — tiles, lanes and depth markers — becomes the subject, which makes for a striking and nostalgic image.

Can you visit it?

It is a fragile, likely private site. Empty pools are dangerous and should not be entered.

If this one stayed with you, these entries sit in the same corner of the archive:

Hashima: the island that ran out of people — Japan
Lake Shawnee: the amusement park that never reopened — United States
Barmaz: the Alpine hamlet that emptied in a single winter — Italy

Photographer & Archive Editor

Marek Halden

Marek Halden has been photographing and researching abandoned places since 2019, working legally and leaving every site as found. This archive records architecture, history and the human stories behind the walls — and never encourages trespassing.