I did not think that the heavens of body and soul would reopen, as when I met the well-being king Ole Henriksen from Nibe and his world-famous ‘Escape to Tranquility’ concept in Hollywood, Los Angeles 20 years ago. But it still happened recently at AIRE Ancient Baths (www.beaire.com) in Vesterbro, of all places.
The entrance to AIRE is discreet and hidden away on Ny Carlsberg Vej 101 at Dipylon Gates, which once served as the entrance to Ny Carlsberg Brewery. Now it offers scents of delicious essential oils from its equally discreet doorway to AIRE.
Fruits of a storm
Morten Storm is the name of the fiery soul who eight years ago applied for permission from Carlsberg and various authorities to restore the historic New Carlsberg Brewery buildings from 1881 and create AIRE Ancient Baths in the form of Greco-Roman baths.
It is the same place that Carlsberg once stored tons of malt needed to produce the legendary Carlsberg beer when the brewery was in operation.
The Spanish founders of AIRE in Seville have already sprouted roots in other major cities such as Barcelona, โโNew York, Rio and Chicago. Also in a historic building in London, where author James Matthew Barrie once resided when he invented Peter Pan.
As is the case with the Carlsberg buildings, the AIRE founders have transformed all of its buildings into their AIRE concept, while respecting the history, architecture and spirit of the place. AIRE Ancient Baths in Carlsberg City opened to the public for the first time in August 2020.
Never before have temperature differences in water been so easy to navigate. From the Caldarium (40ยบC) throw yourself directly into the cold Frigidarium (6ยบC) or resist the Flotarium with salinity levels that compete with the Dead Sea.
Foam in the shallow water
The concept of time evaporates in pure enjoyment at AIRE, where people speak in quiet voices and move slowly. Its dark and roughly polished basement stones and baths are lit with dimmed candles, while the calm sound of New Age music provides an unforgettable experience. Options such as massage, a bite of chocolate, some bubbles or an enchanting beer are available.
Of all the drinks I despise the most, beer takes the cake. I spat it out as a four-year-old was tricked into tasting it by my grandmother who said it was juice.
But AIRE’s therapeutic Carlsberg beer bath is something else with minerals and elements from Brygger Jacobsen’s world-famous malt and yeast composition, which gives the skin renewed radiance and glow. Served with a delicious accompaniment and three different Carlsberg beers, I cheerfully splashed up for the first time since my ‘grandma experience’. A wine bath is also an option at AIRE.
I again embraced the cold stone walk (Pediluvium), a gentle stroll in icy cold water up to my ankles over beautiful white rocks. I then stared up at the estuaries of silos that once released grain into vessels where malt sprouted and now exist as wonderful life-extending baths.
An ode to Carl and Wilhelm
I actually get quite emotional thinking that my old neighborhood has such an exquisite bath. I grew up with workers’ baths on Lyrskovgade on Saturdays on excursions with my mother.
Vesterbro’s once bad housing reputation permeated by corruption has given way to expensive apartments, creative hipstery, snobbish attitudes. It’s something of a deterrent to an oldschool kid in the neighborhood. My whole childhood was that if Carlsberg was hermetically sealed in a vast unknown landscape, except for occasional mini-train rides topped off with a free soda for the kids.
And now I go to the water hut in the Tepidarium after a bath with a thousand nozzles (Balneum), the aroma-detox steam bath (Laconicum) and last but not least the beer bath!
Completely relaxed and happy in the water, I spare a thought for brewer Carl Jacobsen and architect Wilhelm Dahlerup’s building gem, which is so accomplished and well thought out in innovative 2020. Five hours inside my unique AIRE experience, with a glass of bubbles in my hand, for the first time once in a lifetime I can proudly proclaim: AIRE Ancient Baths is in my neighborhood, Vesterbro.
Source: The Nordic Page