Abandoned Places #6 : Swimming Pool Center near Rapid Stadium

I would normally go out and explore some old buildings, but today I decided to write about a forgotten swimming pool center, abandoned nowadays, near Valentin Stanescu football stadium. The stadium belongs to FC Rapid Bucharest football team.

On top of the IFMA tower, you can clearly see the facility on the right side of the stadium, very black, like a dead kitchen bug, lurking around. On the face of the building it’s an old ad to Banc Post.

Inside this amazing facility, Rapid fans were celebrating their victories. In the 80s the place was designed to be a swimming pool for local swimmers. It was later covered in order to allow the swimmers to train in the cold season as well. In 1990 the funds for the construction of the roof were over, so the faith of the building was sealed. There were some attempts in 2007 to restore the facility, however all failed in the end because the modern standards were not fulfilled.

Initially I expected to be caught very fast, however I was able to avoid security and sneak in the facility.

Inside, the atmosphere overwhelmed me immediately, especially because of the tropical color of the windows.

During the cold season, the junior teams had their trainings here. The temperature inside was good and the structure of the pool was very safe.

I went down into the pool to take some pictures of messages left behind by the ultras. They all talk about the past and history. There were some amazing urban art skills in some of the signatures.

In the next one you can find the old logo of the club. Nice drawing skills.

Don’t jump because there’s no water, instead you should run away 😊

My journey ends here. To sum up, I consider myself lucky to be able to take a peek inside this old, historical swimming facility. Thanks for reading!

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