Sauna (Finnish bath) - a national treasure. Finnish sauna

Screensaver image: Gustav Retzius. Inside a large Finnish bath. Wood engraving. Stockholm. 1881

Sauna has been known in Finland for at least two thousand years. The etymology of the term "sauna" goes back to the concept of "warm pit" or "fox hole" - the ancient original form of the term "savna". The ancient Finnish saunas were dugouts dug into the slopes (see ill. on the left), perhaps as a continuation of the ancient (semi)cave way of life. Historically, the first Finnish saunas were either dugouts in the hillsides or earthen huts (“kota”) made of bent tree trunks, interlaced with rods, covered with birch bark and layers of turf - an ancient form of Sami dwelling, known in Finland, Sweden and Norway. The fire was lit in a pit in the middle of the sauna. A passage was dug to the pit for air flow. (The same technology is known among the Sioux Indians North America- it allows you to get low-smoke combustion due to the high speed of air flow and more complete combustion of firewood). Another option is to build a dome-shaped heater, traditional for Finland, in the center of the sauna. The modern popular Finnish grill houses of the grill cat also trace their origins to the ancient Finnish dugout sauna.

Over time, housing construction technologies improved, and Finnish saunas began to grow above the ground as semi-dugouts - semi-logs, and, finally, log cabins (cages) lying directly on the ground or resting on large stones.
Saunas were multifunctional structures. Finnish saunas were used as a winter dwelling or as a temporary shelter for building a house in more recent times. The sauna provided temporary shelter for the homeless. Finnish saunas served as laundries, kitchens, smokehouses, dryers for fish and meat, breweries, a place for slaughtering sheep, calves and pigs, butchering meat and cooking sausages, drying malt, germinating seed potatoes. In the attic of the Finnish sauna, beans and tobacco were dried - self-garden. Children were born in the Finnish sauna, and the mother lived with the newborn for several weeks in the sauna. The bride bathed in the sauna before the wedding, and the newlyweds went to bathe together. Dying old people were transferred from the house to the Finnish sauna, and the dead were washed there before the funeral.
The Finnish writer Alexis Kivi (1834 – 1872) provided an excellent illustration of the role of sauna-housing in the life of Finns alone with nature in his novel The Seven Brothers (1870). The Yukola brothers lived, bathed and steamed, threshed grain and warmed their faithful horse Valko in the sauna. The practice of building and using sauna huts in Finland lasted until early XIX century. It is known that in late XVIII For centuries, saunas separate from huts were still very rare in Finnish settlements and farms. The stove in such sauna-huts served both for heating the room, and for cooking and for generating steam when using the hut as a sauna. They steamed on beds raised to the ceiling, on which they slept.

Over time, the Finns began to build saunas separate from the huts, but continued to combine all other functions in it, with the exception of living (although vagrants and travelers were given shelter in saunas). Initially, separate saunas were all the same semi-dugouts, earthen houses - cats or low log cabins. By the beginning of the 20th century, a typical Finnish sauna was a rather large log cabin erected on stones. It was usually a smoke sauna. Old Finnish saunas were heated in a black way - without chimneys (savusauna). Therefore, in Karelia, because of the smoked walls, they are traditionally called "black rooms". Although the Finns could bathe every day during the suffering, after the Christianization of the country of Suomi, Saturday became the main bathing day, when all the saunas smoked with smoke through all the cracks and a hole in the ceiling, called the "lake". After a long heating (from 3 to 6 hours), the stones in the heater became red-hot and kept hot for several hours even after half or an hour of airing the sauna from smoke. Before going to the sauna for a steam bath, water was splashed on the stones so that the steam would remove the remnants of smoke and carbon monoxide, which dissolves well in water.

The sweetish aroma of the smoke in the smoke sauna penetrated deep into the wood, creating a special atmosphere during soaring.
Since ancient times, the Finns have also known the practice of using a birch broom in the sauna (vihta "bath broom" or vasta "bath whisk") with preliminary soaking in water. In the modern Finnish sauna, due to greater hygiene, the birch broom has been replaced by the use of towels, brushes or washcloths to stimulate blood circulation in the capillaries of the skin. ocean, the production of Finnish sauna stoves - heaters, described a common ritual in a public sauna in the first half of the 20th century in Finland:
“Finnish peasants, tired from a week of hard work, having missed a couple of mugs of homemade beer, the whole company went to the sauna. There they relaxed, enjoying pleasant company, fresh jokes and conversations with friends and neighbors. Outside, while they dried and cooled their roasted flesh, the peasants drank more beer, continuing their nice talking. As their Saturday sauna ritual drew to a close, they were ready to head home happy and rested, rejuvenated by the magical warmth of the sauna. They have been enjoying the sauna for a couple of hours, and now they sing songs and coo with their wives, who are waiting for their turn to take a steam bath. They will have to get out of the sauna before midnight. This is how another week of their lives will pass.[Cit. by: Kallioniemi J., 2014. Translation - ed.].

The temperature in Finnish public saunas in the 19th century was 70-75°C. The Finns considered the mandatory half-hour rest or sleep in bed after visiting the steam room to be the key to health when using the sauna.

Smoke saunas are dearly loved by the Finns to this day. Black saunas are used both by private owners and for commercial purposes for tourists and lovers of folk antiquity. Even after Christianization, the Finns never parted with the pagan primary religion, in which the sauna played an important role, serving as a place of pagan prayer. Fire and heater in the sauna served as an altar. The steam rising from the stones is called in Finland " loyally"(low-loo). It is the sacred steam which is the spirit of fire, the spirit of life or the spirit of the ancestors, which is able to exorcise diseases. Loyly more often has a female gender: the Finns sometimes call the park "grandmother" or compare it with a wife or mother. The Finns are still kind to traditional black baths. Finns say that the first steam in the bath is black "circling like a passionate lover", second pair "caresses like a tender wife", and in the third pair "you sit, as in childhood, on the lap of a good mother".The ritual of visiting the sauna had sacred meaning return to the womb of Mother Earth and rebirth in renewal.
By the way, the Finns still believe that the spirits of the dead return to the sauna on All Saints Day (November 1 - the ancient pagan day of honoring the dead and November 2 - the day of all souls), as this is the most pleasant place on earth.

If in the most ancient versions of smoke saunas the smoke filled the entire sauna room, leaving through cracks and a hole - a “lake” in the roof, then at the end of the 19th century a more modern version of the smoke sauna appeared: a ventilated sauna. In such a sauna, people attached a chimney to the old stove, arranging a casing over the stove to collect smoke, or installing wooden ventilation pipes on the roof. Air leakage for ventilation of the sauna was carried out through a special hole at the bottom of the log house or through an ajar door. Smoke still got into the sauna room, and in such a sauna they steamed only after the heating was stopped and the room was ventilated. Smoke-ventilated saunas were very popular, as the open fire of the stove warmed up large rooms well, the aroma of the smoke created a unique sauna atmosphere, and the ventilation made the air in the sauna cleaner and fresher than a conventional smoke sauna. Also the ventilated sauna was much cleaner as far less soot settled inside the sauna. Shelves in smoke saunas were cooled by pouring water over them and covered with mats of wool or straw and linen to protect the bathers from the soot and heat of the heated wood.

Until the 20th century, the sauna was a kind of central shrine in any Finnish farm - a place for birth, death (sometimes burial) and everyday magic. In the popular mind of the Finns, the sauna is as sacred a place as the church. In the sauna, just like in the church, you cannot quarrel, speak loudly (or even talk at all). It is believed that the violation of these rules will lead to misfortune in the house. At the beginning of the 20th century, farm saunas were rather large structures with massive stoves, since not only the family of the head of the household, but also all the workers on the farm bathed in such a sauna. Ventilated saunas made it possible for saunas to appear in cities, since classical smoke saunas were built only at a distance from residential buildings for fire reasons. In stone urban buildings, saunas were sheathed with wood to prevent steam from condensing on cold stone surfaces, from falling cold drops on bathers, and from destroying plaster. John Wirtanen left us a description of the kindling of a stove in a ventilated sauna from the early 20th century: “When it was my mother’s turn to heat the sauna, she would fill the huge opening of the heater with birch bark, set it on fire, and the smoke would fill the room. The bark crackled and clicked as it burned. Mom put firewood in the stove until the stones turned the color of red burgundy. Flames illuminated her face in the darkness as he leaned over to stir the coals, her face lit up with a smile of anticipation for the pleasure of an evening sauna. When, far in the afternoon, the firewood finally burned out, the coals in the stove breathed unusual heat. Fresh air entered through the ajar door and took out smoke and fumes through the ventilation pipe at the ridge. Fresh birch brooms with soft juicy leaves were waiting for their turn in a tub on the floor. Mom splashed a large scoop of water on the hot shining stones and sighed with satisfaction, listening to the hissing of water on the stones, filling the sauna with an almost invisible hot steam, which carried away the remnants of soot and burning away from the sauna through the ventilation. After that, the sauna was ventilated for almost an hour, and only after that it was ready to receive our family and neighbors who wanted to keep us company”[Cit. by: Kallioniemi J., 2014. Translation - ed.]. The Finns appreciated and appreciate the smoke sauna for its wonderful sweet aroma. Not all ventilated saunas managed to keep it, but those saunas where it worked were highly valued. great art it was right to heat up the stove. Cobblestones, quartzite and potted (soap) stone were used for the heater itself. In a proper sauna, the stones were placed at a level below the feet of people sitting on the shelves, so that the steam from the stones covered the whole body of the bathers. The Finnish sauna is heated exclusively with dry birch or alder firewood that has lain under a canopy in the open air for at least a year. Usually the stones are heated to temperatures of 500 - 800°C, which corresponds to the dark red glow of the stones (burgundy color). With insufficient heating of the heater, water bubbles on the surface of the stones, and with the right one, it flies up with a powerful, almost invisible stream of superheated steam. When kindling saunas, they periodically splash water on the stones, checking how steam is formed and what its “taste” is. When the temperature is not enough, the water hisses lazily on the rocks, and the steam forms a mist in the air and has an unpleasant aftertaste. Breathing in such a pair is difficult. At the right temperature of the heater, the water, evaporating, “roars like a lion”. The transition in the 20th century to white saunas with heaters equipped with chimneys was carried out mainly at the request of insurance companies. Finnish sauna heaters have come a long evolutionary path from a primitive heater to a technologically advanced stove that keeps the heat of the stones longer. Previously, the Finnish sauna most often consisted of one room - the sauna itself. Its size depended on the size of the family and the presence of workers in the house. In the 20th century, functional rooms began to be added to the sauna: a dressing room, a washing room, a shower room, a laundry room, and a rest room.

The modern temperature range in the Finnish sauna is from 70 - 78°C to 100°C. The entire bath ritual usually takes about an hour or a little more. The basic rule of the Finnish sauna is to relax, rest and not rush anywhere. First, they sweat in the Finnish sauna, then they splash water to form steam and bathe with brooms, wash, rinse and cool down, after which they rest.
In the modern Finnish sauna, due to greater hygiene, the birch broom has been replaced by the use of towels, brushes or washcloths to stimulate blood circulation in the capillaries of the skin. In the German sauna, a towel is mainly used to force hot air in the steam room to the body.

Modern saunas can be heated by electric heaters (in Finland there are no problems with providing the population with electricity, perhaps due to the lack of a “natural” monopoly in the country's electricity industry). However, lovers of an authentic Finnish sauna believe that an electric heater does not belong in a sauna because of the strong electromagnetic field, which she creates at work.

Traditionally, diseases were treated in the sauna with the help of massage, steaming with brooms and bloodletting. In general, healing in saunas was carried out by women, who were often the keepers of the sauna. Bloodletting in Finland was done starting from the 16th century, after the appearance of recommendations for peasants in the calendar-appendix to M. Agricola's Treasury (1544) to do bloodletting every year on the eve of sowing. Late bloodletting ("kuppaus") was used as a universal remedy at various diseases, or as a preventive measure several times a year, or every month for a new moon. Before cupping and bloodletting, the patient must take a steam bath in the sauna to improve the blood supply to the skin. Then banks-horns were placed. When the skin beneath them swelled, small skin incisions were made, and the jars were put back in the same place to increase the bleeding.

The sauna tradition is an important bonding factor for Finnish families. Finns bathe together as a family until the children reach adolescence. The Finnish sauna is a regular weekly Sabbath ritual, but special meaning they give a sauna at Christmas and on the day of Ivan Kupala (Johannus). The Finnish sauna is also a traditional component of the Lutheran Scandinavian philosophy of universal equality, demonstrating that someone's superiority can only be appropriate within the framework of industrial relations, but not in any way. privacy. Therefore, in the same sauna you can easily see a top manager of a large international corporation and a representative of the junior technical staff of the same company, as, for example, in the sauna at Nokia's headquarters in Espoo.

In 4 days in Finland, we saw as many saunas as we have probably never seen in our lives. Even in hotel rooms, along with a bath and shower, there were small saunas, to say nothing about hotel cottages.

The Finnish sauna is a dry heat bath, when the air in the room has low humidity (10-25%) and a high temperature in the range of 90-110 ° C. Finns visit the sauna every other day and this is in the order of things. The popularity of Finnish saunas has reached us, however, we copied only the form, forgetting about the content. Today I want to explain the main rules and explain why Natasha in the title photo is steaming incorrectly...

First, a few examples of saunas. Here is a roomy hotel option for general use:

2.

Compact option for a family:

3.

Today, the Finns are wildly popular black sauna - black saunas. This is something similar to a Russian bath:

4.

5.

Shared sauna in the hotel. Usually people go to the sauna either purely for men or purely women's groups. Although, according to hotel staff, often friendly companies all paired together:

6.

Private sauna in the cottage:

7.

Private saunas usually have outdoor jacuzzis. Unlike the Russian tradition of throwing yourself into an ice hole, the Finns prefer a lukewarm bath:

8.

So, important rule Finnish sauna: in no case should you enter the sauna in dressings, a swimsuit or a towel. Under no circumstances. For the Finns, this is bad manners, rudeness and violation of traditional values:

9.

The only thing that is allowed is to take a special piece of paper to lay under the ass:

10.

This is what a person in a Finnish sauna should look like!

It is also important to sit with your feet on a bench (ideally lying down) so that the body heats up evenly. Before visiting the steam room, you can lightly wash yourself in the shower, but be sure to wipe yourself dry. You can't splash water on the stove. If it is very dry, it is allowed to carefully water the wooden walls of the steam room:

11.

How do you feel about the sauna? Do you love to steam?

P.S. I want to announce a new section in my author's application "Traveldoll - Travels in the footsteps of Sergei Doli". Now the program has a guide to the Crimea, compiled on the basis of my many travels around the peninsula.

In 4 days in Finland, we saw as many saunas as we have probably never seen in our lives. Even in hotel rooms, along with a bath and shower, there were small saunas, to say nothing about hotel cottages.

The Finnish sauna is a dry heat bath, when the air in the room has low humidity (10-25%) and a high temperature in the range of 90-110 ° C. Finns visit the sauna every other day and this is in the order of things. The popularity of Finnish saunas has reached us, however, we copied only the form, forgetting about the content. Today I want to explain the main rules and explain why Natasha in the title photo is steaming incorrectly...

First, a few examples of saunas. Here is a roomy hotel option for general use:

2.

Compact option for a family:

3.

Today, the Finns are wildly popular black sauna - black saunas. This is something similar to a Russian bath:

4.

5.

Shared sauna in the hotel. Usually, either purely male or purely female groups go to the sauna. Although, according to hotel staff, often friendly companies steam all together:

6.

Private sauna in the cottage:

7.

Private saunas usually have outdoor jacuzzis. Unlike the Russian tradition of throwing yourself into an ice hole, the Finns prefer a lukewarm bath:

8.

So, an important rule of the Finnish sauna: in no case should you enter the sauna in edits, a swimsuit or a towel. Under no circumstances. For the Finns, this is bad manners, rudeness and violation of traditional values:

9.

The only thing that is allowed is to take a special piece of paper to lay under the ass:

10.

This is what a person in a Finnish sauna should look like!

It is also important to sit with your feet on a bench (ideally lying down) so that the body heats up evenly. Before visiting the steam room, you can lightly wash yourself in the shower, but be sure to wipe yourself dry. You can't splash water on the stove. If it is very dry, it is allowed to carefully water the wooden walls of the steam room:

11.

How do you feel about the sauna? Do you love to steam?

P.S. I want to announce a new section in my author's application "

Sauna: history
Finns do not like to borrow words from other languages. They prefer the whole world to memorize Finnish, and they have achieved some success in this: three Finnish words are already known to mankind. Here they are: Nokia, Linux and, of course, sauna. The Finnish bath has won the love of all the inhabitants of the planet and, undoubtedly, deserves a deep study. It may begin something like this: “For the first time, the Kyiv chronicler Nestor mentioned the sauna in 1113…” In fact, the history of the sauna has about two thousand years.

For Finns, a bath is not just a hygiene procedure, but part of national culture, a ritual that cleanses the body and soul. An old Finnish proverb says: "First build a bathhouse, and then take care of the house." This is how they do it today: for example, having found themselves on the hot Sinai Peninsula, the Finnish peacekeepers first built a sauna and only then engaged in peacekeeping itself ...

A modern resident of Finland cannot imagine life without going to the bathhouse and does it at least twice a week. Friends are invited to the sauna, business meetings are held there, family holidays, and in recent times- corporate parties.
It is unlikely that there is a house or cottage in the whole country where there would not be a sauna. In Suomi, there are more of them than cars: for a population of five million, there are one and a half million baths!
It is quite difficult to join the prestigious Finnish Bath Society - some argue that it is much easier to become a member of parliament!

Sauna: theory
A classic sauna is a log cabin on the shore of a pond (so that, after taking a steam bath, you can rush into cold water or just in a snowdrift). Today, a lake or a river is replaced by a cool pool, but the rest ... It would seem, what's tricky here? However, the sauna holds many secrets.

First of all, a tree. The steam room is built from coniferous wood, and only from the butt part: the walls of the sauna should emit a coniferous spirit, and not ooze resin. Recently Finns sometimes use alder, linden or some exotic species. But traditional Finnish bath- from spruce and pine, which are well toned and give strength.

Then - shelves, benches, tubs and other things that the skin comes into contact with. All of them are made from deciduous trees, so they do not heat up much in a hot steam room. (Note that such wood, in contrast to coniferous, promotes relaxation and relieves fatigue.) They are smoothly planed and pleasant to the touch.
And finally, about the stove-heater. Kamenka, which is a pile of stones, was historically the first bath hearth, but even now it can be seen in modern baths "in black". In bathhouses on the shores of reservoirs, the heater is heated with firewood, and in city apartments they use electricity.

Sauna: geography
For those who come to Finland, the choice of baths is truly limitless: there are saunas in hotels, sports, tourist and leisure centers.
Many people like the baths in the Serena water park, carved right into the rock.
And on the island of Lautasaari (in Helsinki) there is a “cult” bath complex, where many world celebrities have visited - from presidents of great powers to rock musicians. (However, to get there, you need a recommendation from a member of the Finnish Bathing Society with a three-year experience in visiting the steam room!) There are both “black” and “white” steam rooms with a wide temperature range.
Saunas are very popular in Vantaa, eight kilometers from Helsinki, on the shores of Lake Kuusijärvi / Kuusijärvi. There are two of them - regular and black. They work all year round, so they are especially attractive to walruses.

In the small town of Heinola, bathing championships are held annually: participants compete to see who can sit in the steam room longer at a temperature of 110 degrees, calmly and without fidgeting, when every 30 seconds water is poured onto hot stones - they turn on the heat.
In whatever corner of Finland you come, you will certainly be hinted that it is here that they understand a lot about the sauna. There are really a lot of good saunas in Finland. To be convinced of this on your own experience, a lifetime is not enough!

Sauna: questions and answers

What to stock up for a trip to the sauna?
First of all, time: a bath is a serious matter, requiring at least 3-4 hours. Take two towels with you: you will sit on one, and dry yourself on the other. Serious lovers of the steam room will not forget the felt cap on their heads. What else? The reader himself will be able to answer this difficult question if he visits any Finnish supermarket, where huge departments sell bath accessories. There are tubs, brushes and washcloths, thermometers, sheets and towels, special felt caps, massage tools and even bunches of dried flowers that Finns love to decorate sauna walls with (for example, they do not throw away wilted bouquets of roses, but dry them and hang them in bath).

In addition to all of the above, you will find hundreds of obscure, at first glance, gizmos, the purpose of which is better to ask a bath veteran.
Women will certainly pay attention to the lovely pyllyaluinen - towels on which they sit in the sauna: linen and woven, embroidered and with appliqués. Children make such towels at school during manual labor lessons.

What about swimming trunks or a swimsuit? Is it true that men and women bathe together in a Finnish sauna?
Once upon a time it was, but with the influx of foreigners, the rules have changed. Now joint washing is allowed only in the family steam room or in your company. Usually they bathe in turn, or on "men's" and "women's" days. And they do it, of course, naked.
The rules of good bath tone stipulate that, when sitting on the steam room shelf, a special towel should be placed. Any other behavior is considered impolite.

Sauna is dry steam?
Not at all! There are few dry steam baths in Finland, and they are mainly intended for athletes and amateurs. In an ordinary sauna, steam is supplied by pouring water from a special tub onto the heater with a ladle. Before this, a ritually polite question often sounds: “But shouldn’t I succumb yet?”

But what is a sauna without a broom? They are sold in Finland dry and even frozen, in vacuum packaging (to preserve the forest aroma). It is customary to cut branches for birch brooms in June, on a certain day and almost at a certain hour. There are brooms made of oak, eucalyptus, coniferous, as well as mint and even rye straw.
In public saunas, brooms cannot be used (apparently due to problems with cleaning). Another thing is in a private bath: here you can “lash out” to your heart's content, after soaking the broom in hot water poured into a special tub.

It is very hot in the sauna, will there be any health problems?
Doctors believe that the bath improves health. The well-being of the bather improves, and, in addition, the sauna has a beneficial effect on the entire body.
The usual temperature (from 90 to 100 ° C) from the habit may seem, to put it mildly, extreme. For children and the elderly, there are also “warm” baths, with a temperature of 50–60 ° C. Beginners should not plunge into ice water or even into a cool pool. For those who can't wait to flaunt their prowess, I'll quote a Finnish proverb: "It's better to be a live pig than a dead walrus."

You can only drink in the sauna soft drinks. But after the bath, why not take a sip of beer? Or, say, sahti - a special kind of beer prepared according to an old recipe.
With high blood pressure, respiratory diseases and vasospasm, a sauna is even recommended. But during an exacerbation of diseases with bathing joys, it is better to wait a little.
In short, feel free to go to the bath! And then try to find words to express your delight ...

The Finns sincerely believe that they are the inventors of the sauna. This statement can be called an exaggeration, but there is still some truth in it, because it was the Finns who managed to turn bathing into a real art.

Finland - the northern country of baths

If we count the number of inhabitants of Finland (at least 5.1 million people), and divide them by the total number of baths, it turns out that there is one sauna for every three citizens of this country. And yet, contrary to popular belief, the authorship of such a phenomenon as a bathhouse does not belong to the Finns at all - since ancient times, people inhabiting the territory from the Baltic Sea to the Ural Mountains loved to take a steam bath. This method of hygiene was popular among many peoples: Karelians, Estonians, Livs, Vepsians. The bath was well known to the Slavs, Lithuanians and Latvians, as well as to the Finno-Ugric and Turkic-Tatar peoples.

Traditionally, a sauna is a small wooden building, in which steam is generated using water supplied to hot stones. The essence of visiting this place is to sweat well and take the necessary water procedures. The Finns even have a special word for both the spirit of the sauna and the steam from the water thrown on hot stones - leyulu.

Despite the fact that the Romans, Turks, Celts, Japanese, Indians, Russians and even Mexicans were big lovers of hot steam, it was the Finns who managed to preserve the real bath tradition and perfectly adapt it to the conditions modern life. The Finnish sauna has long become a real brand, recognizable far beyond the borders of the country.

The first baths and the history of their occurrence

The very word “sauna” is of Finnish-Sami origin. Initially, this structure was very simple - in the center, under a temporary canopy, there was a pile of stones that were heated to the desired temperature. People gathered around them to take a steam bath. For example, American Indians built for this purpose a special hut-steam room. Historians suggest that the prototype of the sauna could have appeared at the dawn of civilization - about 6 thousand years ago, in the Stone Age.

It has been accurately proven that already in the 5th-8th centuries in Finland there were the first wooden log cabins, which were used both as a sauna and as a dwelling. They drowned there "in a black way", with the help of open fire and smoke. The very method of building this structure began to be used everywhere thanks to Finnish emigrants, who in any country began to build a bath from logs.

What is a black bath

An ordinary pile of stones in the middle of a small structure was called a black bath. This design was also suitable for heating the home, but it was difficult to cook food on it. Starting from the 11th century, they began to build a special chamber with a semblance of a stove over the heater, so separate hearths appeared in the house - for a bath and housing. Already in XVIII century in the western part of Finland they learned to build closed brick stoves that were safer to operate. Such stoves had a chimney and two separate nests - for steam and fire.

The main feature of the brick stove was still the presence of a chimney, which removed the smoke from the room. In the 19th century, the Finns were already building brick heaters with chimneys, which had a separate base. This approach to the construction of saunas made it possible to build them in any place - for example, in cities.

At the beginning of the 20th century, mass production of stoves, enclosed in a metal casing, began. Models were constantly improved, all new engineering developments were applied to them. In the 1930s, a completely innovative type of continuous heating stove was proposed. The firewood in it was placed in a separate chamber in such a way that the stones did not come into contact with either fire or smoke. This allowed for a long time to keep the fire in the bath and take a steam bath without worrying that the hearth would go out.

Bath in the city

Thanks to new models of stoves, the sauna has regained its former popularity. City residents began to enjoy the new blessing of civilization, because until that time the bath was more in use with rural population countries. The decline in the popularity of the sauna was facilitated by a significant improvement in the living conditions of the Finns, which has occurred since the end of 19th century- then in many houses plumbing and baths appeared, and visiting the bath became associated with something rural and old-fashioned.

In cities, public saunas began to appear, divided into women's and men's halves. If desired, each family had the opportunity to order a separate room in the steam room. In public saunas, the services of professional bath attendants, massage therapists and even bloodletters were available to visitors. Many lovers of steam baths became regulars of the baths and enjoyed the special disposition of the institution's staff. The tradition of visiting public saunas lasted in Finland until the middle of the 20th century, after which it began to fade away.

All this time, technological progress did not stand still, and at some point ordinary heaters with chimneys were replaced by electrical devices - the first such stove appeared in 1930, but the rapid development in this direction prevented the war. It was possible to expand the industrial production of electric stoves in 1940.

The new stove was very light and safe, it could be turned on with a single button, after which the stones quickly heated up and maintained the required temperature for a long time. The absence of a chimney greatly expanded the possibilities of installing such heaters - they could function almost anywhere where, for some reason, it was impossible to build a bulky chimney. In addition, an electric stove made it possible not to take care of firewood, which greatly facilitated the process of its operation.

With the help of an electric heater, they managed to solve the problem of the city bath once and for all - the Finns began to build multi-storey buildings, which provided special sections for saunas. Many apartments have their own small saunas, and even some rooms in Finnish hotels have the same feature. It is unlikely that something like this can be seen in another country.

The furnace of the bath and the ancient customs associated with this process

Sauna has been a sacred place for every Finn since ancient times. Initially, this building was located right in the courtyard, but at the beginning of the 20th century, representatives high society introduced a fashion for the construction of baths near water bodies - mainly lakes. Visiting the sauna was obligatory once a week. It usually took the whole day to kindle it, which was done by steamers in several shifts. This procedure was quite complicated and required certain skills and knowledge - what kind of firewood is best for kindling, how to properly place them in the stove, how to tie good brooms, etc. This skill was passed down from generation to generation.

The behavior of bathers in the sauna was regulated numerous rules and customs. For example, in the bath it was forbidden to speak loudly and swear, here it was necessary to behave appropriately - as in a church. Finnish ethnographers refute the opinion that common saunas were common in the country. In fact, women and men visited the steam room separately; much later, family trips to the bathhouse became popular. In the villages, it was customary to take a steam bath first for the owner of the house and the workers, and after them the hostess with her assistants went to the sauna.

Various stories related to the bathhouse and bathing traditions are quite common in Finnish literature. For example, in Alexis Kivi's novel "Seven Brothers" there is such an episode: at Christmas, the brothers were enjoying steam and beer in a new bathhouse, and at that moment a fire broke out. The boys are in the middle winter forest in just shirts, and they had to run at full speed to the nearest house so as not to freeze.

The bathhouse was also actively used in various agricultural activities - malt was dried in it, sausages were smoked, flax was processed, linen was washed and potatoes were germinated. All this was accompanied by songs, stories, various jokes. The bath was also used for divination and for some rituals.

Top reasons to love the sauna

The Finns will never stop loving the bath - the custom of bathing has been passed down for many centuries from generation to generation, everyone has long been accustomed to this and takes it for granted. Sauna not only gives purity - it gives strength, soothes, pacifies and improves health.

The main function of the sauna is to keep the body clean. Since ancient times, once a week, and sometimes more often, people washed off the dirt from themselves in an ordinary bath. Modern apartments have showers and bathtubs, but the habit of going to the sauna still remains. In addition, only in the steam room you can clean the skin well, as the steam helps to open the pores.

And a bath is health. A well-known Finnish proverb says: “if neither tar, nor vodka, nor a bath helped, then the disease is fatal.” At the same time, it is not at all implied that for medicinal purposes it is necessary to use all three means at once at the same time. But a good steam room could really relieve fatigue, soothe aching muscles and joints, give good health and give strength.

Also searched in Sauna peace of mind. This place helped to get rid of heavy thoughts, here they put thoughts in order and found peace. Creative people after a good steam room, they gained inspiration and felt a surge of strength. A visit to the sauna was beneficial for every person who needed to cleanse not only the body, but also the soul. Finns sometimes even hold meetings and important business meetings in the bathhouse, as the atmosphere of this place relaxes and helps all negotiators to tune in to the most peaceful way.

A visit to the bath will definitely benefit people who are bogged down in the daily hustle and bustle. In that great place time stops, and all worries and anxieties seem distant and insignificant. The head is cleared of unnecessary thoughts and accept the right decision becomes much easier. Do not rush anywhere after the bath. You should listen to your body, feel its strength, every muscle. Everything around immediately takes on meaning and becomes clearer.