Wellness
The Undercroft
Two brick vaults below street level hold a sauna and a cold room, with a bench in the garden by the river wall. It is a small spa, and the size suits it.
The cellar
Dug for grain, four metres under ul. Rabiańska.
Two barrel vaults run the length of the building, laid in the same brick as the walls above and drier than most modern cellars. Grain used to be stored in the first. The sauna went into the second, since a vault holds heat and keeps the noise from travelling through the rest of the building.
The sauna seats eight and runs at about 85 degrees. Next to it is the cold room, a bare vault with a plunge trough fed from the mains and nothing to sit on. Between the two is a quiet bay with four loungers and a jug of water, and no screen anywhere.
Towels, a robe and slippers are waiting in your room. Swimwear is worn in the sauna, as is usual in Poland, and we keep to that because the room is shared.
How it works
Book a slot at reception.
The Undercroft is booked in one-hour slots at reception or by the house telephone, and the slot is yours. Two bookings run at a time at most, so it never gets crowded down there, and on request an hour can be kept for one party alone at no charge if the slot is free.
- Open
- Daily, 07:00 to 21:00
- Slots
- One hour, booked at reception
- Capacity
- Eight in the sauna, two bookings at once
- Age
- 16 and over; under 16 with an adult before 10:00
- Access
- Stone stair only, 18 steps, no lift
- Included
- Free for anyone staying in the house
Before you book
The stair to the cellar is the original one, stone and steep, turning as it goes, with a rope handrail on the outer wall. The cellar has no lift, and fitting one would mean taking out a vault. If the stair is not possible for you, tell reception and we will arrange a slot at the municipal baths on ul. Bażyńskich, eight minutes on foot, which has a lift.
The river garden
Twenty metres of gravel between the back wall and the embankment.
Behind the granary a strip of ground that was a cart yard is now a garden, with gravel, four lime trees, a long table and a row of benches against the river wall, where the sun lands from about four in the afternoon. In August it is the coolest place in the building, and after the sauna it is the best place to sit in any month.
Breakfast moves out here from June to early September when the weather allows. The gate to the embankment path is unlocked from 07:00 to 22:00, so you can walk straight out to the water and back in without going through the lobby.
Massage
Two therapists work from a treatment room off the first vault, Thursday to Sunday, afternoons and early evenings. Booking goes through reception at least a day ahead, as the therapists are local and independent of the hotel, and the diary fills.