The glass sky connects the Park D. Carlos I to the Thermal Hospital, standing out as true attraction of Caldas da Rainha.
It consists of a beautiful walkway covered by a structure of iron and glass, adorned with impressive wrought-ironwork, of which the dragon-shaped lamps are its finest examples.
An essential location during the heyday of Caldas da Rainha thermal tradition. The glass sky belonged to the leisure club Clube de Recreio – an institution founded in 1837 – where the local thermal-going elite displayed their refined manners; it was, therefore, one of its main charms.
Once upon a time in Caldas da Rainha
"Thermal stations without a casino are dead places, with no movement and no people whatsoever."
This is how, at the beginning of the last century, the importance of recreational activities at thermal resorts was reflected, offering visitors the chance to fill their leisure time and even to speed up their recovery, given the range of physical and sporting activities taking place outdoors.
In Caldas da Rainha, despite a stronger focus on medical care, this trend was also evident. Thus, the woods and the Park offered space for bathers to engage in recreational activities in the open air, whilst the Club, beneath a ‘glass sky’, catered to the need for socialising during the thermal season.
Established in 1837, the Club de Recreio had since become the meeting place for the society that came to bathe in the thermal waters of Caldas da Rainha.
The leisure facilities were designed to fit the tastes and customs of the early 20th century. In its salons, guests could play card games such as whist, bridge or voltarete, or board games such as chess, backgammon or draughts, with space also set aside for a billiards room and a library. In the ballroom, where the evening reached its climax, there were two pianos.
In the central gallery, which separated the billiard room from the other areas and was covered by the iron and glass structure that gave it its name, society gathered to read newspapers, chat, drink tea and follow the old maxim of ‘to see and to be seen’.
Although access to the Park Carlos I was less restricted than to the Club, it was nonetheless subject to a set of rules that had to be observed to ensure it ran smoothly. During the winter, the gates closed before nightfall, but in the summer season, opening hours were extended until midnight.
In addition to the paths and lawns, the garden featured a shooting range, a skating rink and areas set aside for various sports, including skating, tennis, cricket, malha and the still fledgling sport of football. Another attraction was the chance to hire a boat and row, beneath the leafy canopy, on the calm waters of the lake.
The afternoons in August and September were enlivened by outdoor music performed by a military band, usually that of the Lisbon Municipal Guard. For two or three hours every day, the musicians played a repertoire consisting of marches, waltzes and symphonies.
In the evenings, when the characteristic climate of Caldas da Rainha permitted, recreational or charity events were organised, with an admission charge and stricter entry rules. With electricity having been installed in the park since 1904, the illuminations were the main highlight of these events.
Far less bustling, ‘populated by a wide variety of trees, with its streets and paths carpeted in moss’ and ‘a beautiful avenue of plane trees’, the Wood was another large green space available to visitors. Designed by Berquó, this area offered convalescents a more peaceful setting for their walks, amidst the rustling of the foliage and the silence of the small clearings.
Furthermore, the Wood was the setting for some significant events of the spa era. An example of this was the racecourse, a vast area near the main avenue where, every year, various horse races were held, constituting an important moment in the social life of Caldas da Rainha.
During the winter, the woods took on a far more bucolic air, beneath the cloudy sky and the rustling of fallen leaves. For this reason, outside the bathing season, its gates closed before sunset.
However, with such a packed programme of events during the summer season, it is hardly surprising that the Club de Recreio, the Park and the Wood were a must-visit destination for Caldas da Rainha society and its guests, providing the bulk of the town’s leisure activities.
Even the cinema, which had taken its first steps in this region at the turn of the century, was housed in a wing of the Hospital. Indeed, in 1907 a request was made to set up a screening room at the Convalescent Home, with a proposal that the Hospital should receive 10% of the revenue generated by the matinees. Two years later, the Animatographo Colossal, now installed and fully operational, was showing sensational films of the time.
Pinheiro Chagas Theatre, the Cyclo-Club and the Bullring, along with the main hotels, were the other main entertainment venues in Caldas da Rainha.
Foz do Arelho and other natural relics
The best alternative to the usual sightseeing itineraries was to take short trips to the outskirts of the town, such as Foz do Arelho or Salir, but also to Óbidos or Alcobaça.
Foz do Arelho, meanwhile, was beginning to attract the attention of a growing number of bathers. Praised for its ‘excellent climate’ and the characteristics of its location, it was even suggested that a sanatorium should be built in the vicinity.
Nearby, the Óbidos lagoon, ‘which can be compared to many lakes in Switzerland, where there are beautiful chalets’, also attracted the interest of visitors.
As it turned out, despite this more picturesque attraction, it was around the Hospital and the Club that the main events and entertainment of Caldas da Rainha were concentrated.
Even though life at the Hospital was sustained by the ‘qualities and reputation of the thermal waters rather than the glamour of its entertainment’, the truth is that the ‘Glass Sky’ and all those who sought diversion beneath it, trying to forget the ‘torments of rheumatism’, had long since become a symbol of the social microcosm that formed here during the thermal season.
Times have changed ever since, and the century-old Club de Recreio building, having briefly housed a short-lived Casa da Cultura, remained abandoned for many years.
Today, beneath its restored glass dome, even if it cannot revive the old days, it at least evokes, opposite the old Hospital that gave it its raison d’être, the spirit of the Belle Époque which, a hundred years on, has slowly faded into the fading memory of the Queen’s and the Republic’s thermal baths, hence the city name "Caldas da Rainha".
