66 SEZÓN

This is the tale of a public pool in Košice, Slovakia, where history came to take a swim. Many stories unfolded between the years 1936 and 2002, for 66 seasons at the popular swimming pool. And at the same time, 66 years of history in Central and Eastern Europe passed.

When the pool was bombed in 1941, many were killed in the water. Others left it, to go to war. The architect who built the pool was murdered in a concentration camp.

'After the war, for a few years there was a rule: In Slovakia speak Slovak! And that wasn’t good music to Košice’s ears. So, no wonder that whoever came here must have felt like they were in safe haven. In the streets one could hear whether you spoke this or that language. But at the swimming pool, with everyone in bathing suits, it didn’t make any difference.'

One day in 1968, the people of Kosice found there own way of boycotting the Soviet regime: they drained the pool.

'When you are born, you go to the small pool and you learn how to swim. Then you go to a bigger one, and when you grow out of that one, you change to the biggest pool. Then you have a beer, and then you return to the baby pool with your grand children. And you want to paddle there for a little longer, but then it is closing time, and you don’t feel like going - but it is closing time, and one must go.'

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