Russian bathhouse in black style The bathhouse has always been and is for Russian people not just a place where you can take hygiene procedures and cleanse your body of impurities, but a special, almost sacred structure, where cleansing occurs not only on the physical, but also on the spiritual level. It’s not without reason that those who visited the bathhouse, describing their own feelings, say:
How he was born again, became 10 years younger and cleansed his body and soul.
The secret of the Russian steam room
Experts who are professionally involved in the history of baths in Rus' identify four main features of the Russian steam room, which distinguish it from a number of similar national steam rooms, hammams, thermal baths and sinks:
- Extremely high temperature of the steam room at 70-80% air humidity. It could only be obtained using boiling water and a heater installed inside the steam room;
- Use of brooms and custard infusions for bath procedures;
- Contrast dousing or swimming in the river;
- The wooden lining inside the bathhouse held the heat well in the steam room even at sub-zero air temperatures outside.
For your information!
According to reviews from professionals, the one who came up with the idea of steaming inside a wooden frame actually became the inventor of a real Russian bathhouse. It was the wooden frame that turned the black dugout with a heater built from pebbles into a Russian bathhouse. Why? A talented man, who lived in the territory from the Black Sea to Karelia and the Urals, came up with a way to retain the heat of hot wet steam in a confined space.
History of the bath: the origin and development of bath art in different countries of the world
Hello, lovers of steam and fragrant birch broom!
The well-known proverb “The day you steam, the day you don’t grow old” quite subtly captures the whole essence of the bath business. Our distant ancestors also knew and greatly appreciated all the miraculous properties of the bathhouse.
Man noticed the healing abilities of steam and hot water almost from the moment he learned to use fire. Therefore, the simplest prototype of a bathhouse can be considered stones heated on a fire, which emit “magical” heat. So, the history of the bathhouse goes back far into the past and can go back several dozen centuries.
From this article you will learn:
Who invented the sauna log house and why?
If you take a closer look at the “relatives” of the Russian bath - Roman, Greek and Turkish, then the problem that the territories of ancient Rus' faced in attempts to equip a primitive semblance of a steam room becomes clear.
Anyone who has ever had to set up a camp bathhouse knows how difficult it is to create a suitable degree of steam in a tent or dugout. Greece, Italy, Turkey are located much further south, the climate is warmer, so there are no problems with heat loss. There is no point in comparing an oriental bathhouse, even Roman baths, with an ancient Russian steam room.
In thermal baths and hamams, in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Arab baths, one does not steam in the sense of a Russian bath, but rather warms up and sweats in a slightly heated, very humid atmosphere. To experience the full power of a steam room in the Russian frost, you need someone talented to come up with a warm log house and a real stove-stove.
Later, the design of the stove and chimney was borrowed from their southern and eastern neighbors in the Russian bathhouse, and the warm bathhouse is very similar to the Finnish sauna. No matter how or who proves the authorship of the invention, the chopped bathhouse in Rus' is an exact copy of the Finnish steam room. Most likely, the warm log house was invented by the people living in the northern territories, from Karelia to the Urals.
Bath secrets
Did Adam and Eve go to the bathhouse?
Since we started talking about the history of the bathhouse, we will say right away that it dates back more than a dozen centuries. The custom of washing in a bathhouse is as ancient as humanity itself! If we ask historians and archaeologists, they will honestly answer us that science knows many facts indicating that baths were already known in Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and Babylon. Thus, during excavations on the island of Crete, fairly well-preserved remains of the royal palace were found. Historians dated this find to around the second millennium BC. So, in this palace there were several rooms that were used as a bathhouse, and this bathhouse was equipped not only for washing, but also for various hydrotherapy procedures!
Baths were known to the ancient Japanese, Chinese, Indians, Persians, Incas! All these peoples, who created wonderful and highly developed civilizations, greatly appreciated the importance of steam procedures and even created scientific treatises in which they comprehensively studied the effect of steam on the human body. In almost every treatise we find irrefutable evidence that the healing power of baths was recognized and widely used in the treatment of a wide variety of diseases.
And if we turn to the evidence of ancient scientists, we will see that Herodotus and Aristotle devote quite a lot of attention to this issue. For them, the presence or absence of baths in a particular state was evidence of its level of civilization. From the same Aristotle we learn that the steam bath was borrowed by the Greeks in the Ancient East, and Herodotus writes that Alexander the Great first tried to steam in a bath during his military campaign to the East. He liked it so much that upon returning from the campaign, he ordered the construction of public baths everywhere, which was done in the shortest possible time.
And in Ancient Greece there was even a cult of the goddess of purity, Hygia (this is where hygiene comes from!). This cult was so widespread that the agora, the highest body of ancient Greek power, even issued special laws regulating visits to public baths. All noble citizens were required to regularly visit the baths, and there was even a public position - “bathing supervisor.” The person in this position strictly monitored the strict observance of bath laws by citizens. The high popularity of baths in Ancient Greece is also evidenced by the fact that mythological heroes and even gods did not disdain to bathe in baths.
So, Odysseus, while staying with the goddess Circe, basked in a marble pool filled with hot water. The goddesses and nymphs of rivers and seas - the Nereids - gave Odysseus hot water, massaged and anointed his body with oils and incense. In this way, the ancient hero freed himself from fatigue and prepared for new exploits and achievements. And the gods, wanting to take a steam bath, resorted to the help of Hephaestus, since he, living in the crater of a volcano, could provide everyone with both hot water and steam. Baths were considered sacred by the ancient Greeks and, like everything sacred, had their own patron. Hercules was considered the patron saint of baths in Greece - a symbol of strength, health and power. Such patronage seemed to guarantee that everyone who took a steam bath would certainly acquire the same strength as Hercules.
And the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, the founder of all medical science, often replaced traditional treatment with a good steam bath, since he believed that poisons that accumulate in the body during illness and poison it must be eliminated through increased sweating. In his treatise on medicine, he wrote that the body itself can cope with the disease, since its vital forces are truly inexhaustible, they only need to be released and directed towards recovery. Hippocrates, by the way, himself intensively used his own methods of treating all ailments and lived up to 110 years! In his medical practice, he used the most natural and natural therapy - hydrotherapy, since he believed that water helps a person draw strength and vital energy from natural sources, since it itself is one of the natural elements.
But the ancient Romans elevated the bathing craft almost to the rank of real art. During excavations in Rome, perfectly preserved baths were discovered, and the famous Roman baths do not even need comments! The Romans valued the sacred bathing procedures so much that they sought to furnish them with all sorts of luxury - and for this purpose they decorated the baths with noble marble and placed in them sculptures and sculptures by the most famous masters. Thus, in the famous baths of Caracalla there were golden washstands of high artistic value, and the famous sculpture of Laocoon was discovered during excavations in the baths of Agrippa.
The construction of the baths often took many years, but the result of such hard work of millions of slaves and captives was simply amazing. A simple arithmetic calculation can surprise an attentive person: according to historians, the construction of only one bath took about three to four years, and it was not the most luxurious, but a completely ordinary building. (By the way, the construction of the baths for Emperor Diocletian lasted about six years, and more than 40 thousand people were employed in the construction!) So, in total there were more than eight hundred baths in Rome. This means that if the Romans built their baths one after another, it would have taken them about three thousand years to build them all!
In general, the ancient Roman baths were entire cities, which had almost everything that a noble citizen might need. In addition to the actual “bath” premises - swimming pools with hot and cold water, tepidariums (halls for sweating) with dry and wet heat and special rooms for massage, the bath complex also included gymnasiums, stadiums, grounds for sports competitions, refectory halls and even libraries! That is, while striving to maintain the purity of their bodies, the ancient Romans did not forget about the soul, thus achieving harmony of body and spirit. In such complexes, a Roman could disappear for days on end, because he could even eat food without leaving the thermal baths! In the “average” thermal bath there could be about two and a half thousand people at the same time, and one can imagine what kind of “men’s clubs” they were! Sometimes it even begins to seem that the ancient Roman emperors simply competed with each other, and each sought to surpass his predecessor by building more luxurious and spacious baths, thereby gaining popularity among the ancient Roman “electorate”, so committed to purity.
One gets the impression that the Romans spent all their days in the thermal baths, because even senators could discuss some important issues there, sitting in the cool and comfortable pools! Over time, the baths became the focus of social and political life, combining not only hygienic, but also all other functions - cultural, sports, social and entertainment. As social life moved to the thermal baths, prostitution began to develop and flourish at the baths, and, according to historians, many famous Roman hetaeras “made themselves popular” precisely at the thermal baths, because only there the most eminent townspeople gathered, able to appreciate female attractiveness.
Such an extensive system of thermal baths was served by the most developed water supply system for that time, consisting of 9 aqueducts, through which water was delivered not only to the thermal baths, but also to the houses of the townspeople. If all the aqueducts were stretched into a single straight line, its length would be 443 kilometers! Every day, 750 thousand liters of water were delivered to the baths, and 1000 liters of water per day were spent on each Roman! In our time, no one, even the most careless person, is able to use such a huge amount of water in a day. Well, in those ancient times, no nation consumed such a huge amount of water. Despite the fact that cities were then built along the banks of rivers, there were nevertheless great problems with the delivery of water, and therefore, over time, a very unfavorable opinion developed about the depraved inhabitants of Rome, who wastefully poured out so much water for the pleasure of their pampered bodies.
So how were the famous Roman baths constructed and why did they get that name? The thing is that these baths used water from thermal springs, and it was with this water that the floors of the bath rooms were heated. Through an extensive pipe system, hot water flowed into the bathhouses, heating them and heating the floors. Moreover, the temperature of the floor reached 60–70 degrees, and there was absolutely no possibility of walking barefoot on such a floor, so visitors were given special wooden sandals that protected their feet from the heat.
At their discretion, visitors could choose a room with dry or moist heat, in which they were supposed to stay for no more than 15 minutes. After this, they moved to the washing room, in which there were huge copper containers filled with water of various temperatures. Having washed off the sweat and dirt, visitors headed to the following rooms, where they indulged in various body care procedures. Of course, the noble Romans did not perform all these procedures themselves, since at the baths there was a whole staff of servants of various specialties. There were washers who cleaned the bodies of visitors using special ivory or valuable wood scrapers; there were also specialists who maintained the required temperature in the rooms and supplied water. There were massage therapists and specialists in caring for fingernails and toenails, there were even special experts who painlessly performed depilation, pulling out unwanted hair! Later, doctors appeared on the staff of the thermal baths, who, on occasion, could perform bloodletting or cure teeth.
In general, in Ancient Rome, as in Ancient Greece, most health procedures were carried out in thermal baths. Roman doctors rightly believed that water and steam could truly work miracles, and the famous physician Asclepiades even developed a medical doctrine according to which patients should be treated “correctly, quickly and pleasantly.” This is exactly the kind of treatment that is possible in a bathhouse! The combination of hot steam, massage and cold douches tempered and strengthened the body, mobilizing its defenses to fight the disease. The therapeutic effect of bath procedures was further enhanced by the fact that the baths were supplied with water from thermal (that is, underground) springs, and this water, as is known, contains a huge amount of useful minerals and salts. The special properties of thermal water significantly increased the healing and healing power of bath procedures.
And we find another evidence that baths were used to treat diseases in linguistics: some scientists suggest that the very name “bath” comes from the Latin “balneum”, which means “to heal pain”, and from this came the special a branch of medicine - balneology, which uses the healing powers of specific natural resources - water, mud and silt - to treat patients.
By the way, to this day the healing properties of thermal waters are widely used in traditional medicine, and where the underground springs are located, the most famous balneological resorts are located. Moreover, most of these resorts arose on the basis of ancient Roman baths. For example, the Bulgarian resort of Golden Sands is famous not only for its mineral water springs, but also for the fact that in ancient times there were Roman baths there, the picturesque ruins of which have survived to this day. And the public baths in Sofia were simply rebuilt on the site of Roman baths.
But we can observe this trend - to build baths, resorts and hydropathic clinics on the site of ancient thermal baths - not only in Bulgaria, but throughout almost all of Europe. The fact is that the Romans pursued an active policy of conquest, seizing more and more lands and creating more and more new colonies. Of course, even during military campaigns they did not want to give up their habits - and therefore they immediately built baths so dear to their hearts. Thus, baths were built almost throughout the entire territory of the Holy Roman Empire, and the conquered peoples acquired the habit of cleanliness, so that the ruthless conquerors - the Roman legionnaires - acted as a kind of educators in this matter, carrying out a civilizing mission and promoting the spread of baths throughout modern Europe.
But not only Europe fell under the influence of Ancient Rome. The famous Turkish baths, surprisingly, are a direct heritage of the Roman baths. Probably, it was in the Turkish baths that Roman traditions were most fully and intact preserved, making the bath not only a place for ablution, but also a kind of cultural center. The peoples of the East, due to their special mentality, protected not so much the arrangement of the baths (after all, they were somewhat changed compared to their prototype), but rather the special spirit of community, unity and cultural communication that made the baths a real “men's club”.
The baths of Constantinople are an almost exact copy of the Roman baths: hot water flowing through the pipes heats the marble floor to almost 80 degrees. This floor is watered with water, which creates steam. As far as can be judged, there are no rooms with dry steam in Turkish baths, and this is the main difference between the Turkish bath and the Roman baths, in which visitors had the opportunity to choose between dry and wet steam.
In the East, baths have gained enormous popularity also because in such a hot climate it is simply impossible to do without regular cleansing of the body. That is, the eastern bath served not only for treatment, but also for the prevention of many diseases. But that’s not even the main thing. Everything in the oriental bath is subordinated to a single goal - relaxation and rest. Yes Yes exactly! Therefore, massage specialists and washers are highly valued in a Turkish bath, because the mood and state of mind of the client depends on their skills.
In addition to their “direct” duties, massage therapists and washers must be able to maintain a conversation, even directing the client’s thoughts in a pleasant direction. Naturally, to successfully perform such duties, a bathhouse attendant does not have only strong hands. A bathhouse attendant must also have remarkable intelligence in order to fully meet the requirements for people in this profession. Initially, only a man could become a bathhouse attendant, since Eastern men did not consider a woman a worthy interlocutor, equal to a man in intelligence. Women were assigned one role - to please men's eyes by dancing, and their ears by singing and playing musical instruments. There were a great many dancers at the baths, but no self-respecting man would ever stoop to talking with a woman. That is, of course, some kind of communication took place, but in such a way as to undermine oneself when discussing some serious topics with a woman “as equals” - never!
Then, of course, this tradition changed a little, and the woman received the right to practice massage. But discrimination made itself felt here too: women were specialists in “specific” types of massage, and traditional relaxing or therapeutic massage was performed, as before, by male massage therapists.
And one more specialist, valued in the Turkish bath for his skill, is the teahouse keeper. It just so happened that after bathing procedures, an oriental man never went straight home, but continued to communicate in a teahouse over tea. They simply didn’t drink alcohol back then. Of course, no one is talking about an absolutely teetotal society; during festive meals they drank wine - and in fairly large quantities, but after the bath it was customary to drink only tea. And here, in the cool teahouse, the teahouse owner reigned - sedate, respectable and knowledgeable of all the latest social events. It was a pleasure to linger with such an interlocutor! Well, besides, it was in the teahouse that one could completely relax and smoke a hookah or play a few games of backgammon.
Of course, we cannot tell you everything in detail about a real Turkish bath, since we have never been there ourselves, but we still know something from oral and literary sources. Thus, A.S. Pushkin, during a trip to the Caucasus, visited the famous Tiflis baths and left a fairly detailed description of them. In a real Turkish bath, visitors first take steam treatments, lying on wooden shelves for 10 to 30 minutes, and then go to the next room, where experienced washers wash away sweat and dirt from them, using all kinds of woolen washcloths, terry mittens or washcloths made from a special plant - luffas. Pushkin also mentions a “soaped linen bubble,” noting that it would not hurt to introduce such a custom in the Russian bathhouse.
But it must be said that this was not always the case. Initially, even before Roman influence, the Turkish bath was completely different, more primitive, and for modern people, completely “wild”. It consisted of only one room (actually a paired section), in which intensely sweating people rubbed their bodies with special woolen mittens - “kisas” (emphasis on the second syllable), “rolling off” dirt and sweat. After sitting and “cleansing” in such a dubious way, they doused themselves with water and were completely satisfied with the result. This method of washing in a bathhouse, however, had one undeniable advantage - it was very economical: a minimum amount of water was needed, and no soap was wasted at all. And if you consider that there was no soap as such, and people used ash, sand or some specially made beeswax pastes instead, then, by and large, such an uncivilized bathhouse should be considered quite reasonable. After all, in principle, it doesn’t matter how purity is achieved, since the end result is the same...
However, this situation did not last long: having tried other, “civilized” methods of washing in a bathhouse, the Turks quickly “got a taste”, realizing that it was much better to combine the useful - washing the body - with the pleasant. Since then, Turkish baths have acquired their inherent atmosphere of bliss and peace. And over time, specific bath etiquette was even developed, regulating not only the procedure for performing ablutions, but also massage procedures, topics of conversation, and even the manner of communicating with each other. This special bath etiquette continues to this day - although not in such a strict form, but still...
And if we want to become more familiar with that special emotional mood that was so cultivated in those days and continues to be carefully maintained in Turkish baths to this day, we can open Maksud Ibragimbekov’s story “And there was no better brother,” in which he is described in great detail a ritual that accompanied bathing in a Baku bath. The hero of this story had put himself in a certain mood since the evening, and early in the morning he leisurely went to the bathhouse. Slowness is the main rule of a true connoisseur of a good bath. To show haste means to violate an established ritual, and for an Eastern man, ritual and loyalty to tradition are almost the fundamental concepts that govern their life.
What is included in this special bath ritual and what is the Baku bathhouse like? There are no common areas where visitors wash together. This method is simply not accepted, so the bathhouse is divided into quite spacious separate rooms, consisting of a locker room and the steam room itself, in which ablutions take place. The visitor goes into the office, undresses and lies down on a marble couch, which the bath attendants had carefully washed and warmed before. About 10 minutes later, when the visitor’s body is already sufficiently steamed, a “grater”—a massage therapist—comes into the office.
As a rule, a Baku resident goes to the same bathhouse throughout his entire life, so he is perfectly familiar with all the bathhouse attendants and massage therapists, and they know not only his name, but also the names of his household and relatives, and are well aware of everyone his affairs. But you can discuss with a massage therapist not so much household matters (usually this is discussed in a women’s bathhouse), but rather matters and problems of public order. In addition, bathhouse attendants are well erudite in matters of poetry, they know the works of Nizami, Fizuli and other poets, and can also discuss and interpret the Koran. In general, when a European learns about this, he is very surprised and immediately begins to draw cultural and historical parallels with the Japanese institution of geishas, who are subject to approximately the same requirements.
But this is not surprising, since Eastern peoples pay great attention to the harmonious combination of spiritual and bodily, physical life. The pleasure of the soul is as important to them as the pleasure of the body. That is why bathhouse attendants in an eastern bathhouse must be able to not only cleanse the bodies of visitors, but also pacify their souls. And for this, such extensive knowledge of poetry and religion is needed.
Having washed and massaged the visitor, the bathhouse attendant thanks him, listens to the response of gratitude and leaves. Now the visitor goes to the teahouse, where after the bath all visitors gather: it is not customary to go home immediately after bathing. In the teahouse, everyone is offered a separate table and brought freshly brewed tea. While drinking tea calmly, a man can relax and think about his affairs alone, or maybe invite someone he knows to share company with him. Until an invitation follows, no one will “sit down” at his table and violate privacy. This is simply not accepted according to special etiquette, and no one will understand a daredevil capable of such daring actions.
One gets the impression that Eastern men are simply incredible individualists. In fact, this is not at all the case, it’s just that everyone there really values the sovereignty of an individual and therefore does not “stuff” unceremoniously into a company, but expects a special invitation: if a person wants to communicate, he will find a way, without violating decency, to do so. This rule is observed by everyone, even in relation to old friends it is customary to treat with similar ceremonies. It seems that it would not hurt for us, Europeans, to learn such courtesy towards each other, this would only make it easier for everyone.
But of course, in a teahouse you can not only sit and drink tea in solitude, but also chat, smoke a hookah or play a few games of backgammon. And what’s most interesting is that Eastern men, who are very gambling by nature, never play for money: it would be a violation of the rules, the unwritten code, if a teahouse owner allowed something like this in his establishment. They play only “for fun”, and other visitors can watch the game, but, again, only watch in silence. Or rather, it is possible to discuss the game among one another in a low voice, but not one of the observers will ever allow himself to give advice (as in one of our popular comedy: “Walk the horse, walk the horse!”) to the players on how they should play - it’s indecent! This is how the “bath day” goes.
As you can see, a visit to the bathhouse for an Eastern man can last a whole day. But the Japanese bath procedure takes much less time, but the healing effect from it is simply amazing! Japanese baths - sento and ofuro - are not a bathhouse in our understanding of the word, since they are a kind of hybrid of a bathhouse (in terms of heating method) and a bathtub. Sento is a public bathhouse, while ofuro is a “home” bathhouse. This design looks like a large barrel of water standing on a stove, located in a spacious, well-ventilated room. Inside the barrel there is a seat that allows you to sit chest-deep in water.
The water is heated to approximately 50 degrees, so the duration of the bath procedure does not exceed 15–20 minutes. After a person leaves this barrel, he is tightly wrapped in a linen sheet, and for about an hour he lies motionless, sweating and expelling toxins. Only after this the Japanese washes off the sweat, wipes himself dry and devotes another hour to exercise along the paths of the park. This routine is fully consistent with a special philosophy of life, according to which water is one of the most important natural elements that have a healing effect on the human body. Fresh air in a well-ventilated area is as important as water, as it prevents negative energy from circulating around a person. Well, the final exercise gives a person a feeling of peace and harmony with nature.
The Japanese also have their own theory about the short duration of the bath procedure: since a person is in hot water for only 15 minutes, he does not have time to relax, and accordingly his body does not pamper, but hardens, strengthens, becoming stronger and more vigorous. Recently, the Japanese tradition has been replenished with another type of bath with an extremely interesting and unusual way of steaming. We are talking about the so-called sawdust bath. Not all sawdust is suitable for such a bath, but only the smallest cedar sawdust, mixed in a 4:1 ratio with a mixture of 70 medicinal and spicy herbs and roots. This mixture is slightly moistened and heated to a temperature of 50–60 degrees. A person buries himself in this sawdust for 20 minutes, after which he is removed and given a vigorous massage. This bath procedure promotes rejuvenation of the body and is therefore highly valued by specialists.
The Indians invented approximately the same method of steaming, with the only difference being that they did not use sawdust, limiting themselves only to herbs and medicinal roots. If the bathhouse was used for medicinal purposes, then a shaman came to the rescue, fumigating the wigwam in which the healing took place with “magical” smoke and calling on almighty spirits to help.
One may get the impression that baths were extremely popular among all peoples and at all times, but this opinion will be deeply erroneous. There is also a time in the history of mankind when baths were considered something extremely sinful, displeasing to God, and, as a result, came under the strictest ban. This dark and literally and figuratively dirty period dates back to the Middle Ages and lasts for almost a thousand years. For a whole millennium, caring for the purity of one’s body was considered a sinful activity and unworthy of that person who longs to earn a place in heaven! And for the sake of this dubious advantage - to earn themselves bliss in the afterlife - people abandoned completely earthly bliss, becoming overgrown with dirt and all kinds of parasites!
Such outrageous uncleanliness, of course, is explained by the fact that primitive minds sought to elevate the human soul, degrading its earthly shell - the body. They say that the more the body suffers, the purer and better the soul will be. The founder of one of the monastic orders, Anthony, who was later canonized, proclaimed that a truly spiritual person should not wash at all, devoting all his free time to fasting and prayer. He put forward a whole doctrine according to which the purer a person’s body, the dirtier his soul, and he cited himself as an example, proud of the fact that he himself never washed his feet or changed his clothes until they decayed and turned into real clothes. rags.
Meanwhile, the real “saints” wandered along the roads: they had no shelter, did not change clothes, did not wash or even comb their hair, but ate what came under their feet, that is, berries, roots and plants. It is not surprising that with the widespread spread of such “holy” obscurantists, who preached real religion by their own example, Europe was struck by the most terrible epidemics of cholera and plague. Cholera, after all, is generally considered a “disease of dirty hands”, and the plague - the “Black Death”, which claimed a quarter of the entire population of Europe in 1347-1350, took on such a frightening scale solely because people completely stopped washing.
A vicious vicious circle arose: people did not wash, for fear of contracting the plague, but this made their bodies weaken, their immunity was weakened to such an extent that a person could not resist even a common cold, not to mention more dangerous diseases. Cities were literally overgrown with dirt, since water supply and sewage systems were completely unknown at that time, and sewage poured directly from the windows of houses onto the streets. On the city streets, turned into real landfills, rats and mice bred in incredible numbers, and they are the carriers of the plague! One can only wonder how anyone survived in such mud!
A naive reader will probably think that the plague epidemic affected primarily the poor, and that representatives of the rich classes were more clean, and therefore the plague epidemic spared them. Nothing like this! Aristocrats were just as unscrupulous as plebeians. They did not change their linen, did not know about the existence of soap and a handkerchief, and there was no question of going to the bathhouse! The only thing that distinguished an aristocrat from a poor man was the presence of a special vat in the house, which was occasionally used for washing. And even then, these baths took place in a very original way: hot water was poured into this vat, and everyone living in the castle bathed in it. Naturally, the water did not change for each family member: as soon as it was poured, so it remained. Then clothes were washed in the same water and used for other household needs.
Even the highest aristocracy (up to the royal families) was no exception: in these families the situation was exactly the same. History brings us information that the daughter of one of the French kings even died because she was eaten by lice and fleas. Of course, such a cruel death is extreme, but in those distant times it was not the presence, but rather the absence of fleas and other parasites that was a sensation, because all the aristocracy, without exception, were flea-infested! It even got to the point that every noble lady wore a special “flea” fur skin under her dress so that the owner herself would not be bitten by fleas so much (apparently, this was something like modern flea collars for dogs). It is unknown how effective this remedy was, but it apparently did not help that same royal daughter.
If we turn our attention to the masterpieces of painting of that period, we will see that in those days there was even a special ideal of beauty: high, “noble” foreheads were “in fashion.” Has anyone ever wondered where such an ideal suddenly came from? Meanwhile, everything is explained quite simply: since pediculosis (lice and fleas) was a common occurrence, the hair deteriorated and thinned. Naturally, the hairline seemed to be “pushed back” - and this is how this unnatural canon of beauty arose. It seems that if things turned out in such a way that the aristocracy, eaten by fleas, would begin to go catastrophically bald, bare skulls would immediately come into fashion!
But since this did not happen, and the aristocracy still attached quite a lot of importance to their appearance, it was around this time that some skilled hairdresser invented and introduced wigs into fashion. This really was a salvation for the court nobility: now there was no need to wash your hair at all, because nothing was visible under the wig anyway! But this was already at the end of this unscrupulous period, almost at the turn of the Renaissance period. The heyday of perfumery also dates back to around this time: during balls and celebrations, when all the high society gathered in one unventilated room, visiting the baths no more than once every two to three months, the smell from unwashed bodies was so strong that they tried to “drown out” "with the help of incense. It’s strange: now even a child understands perfectly well that it is much more effective not to try to drown out the smell of sweat with any harsh aromas, but to simply wash it off with soap and hot water. But in those days everything was different, and perfumers and perfume makers flourished!
Fortunately, this period of history is finally over, otherwise humanity would simply die out from the dirt! During the Renaissance, the interests of the flesh prevailed over the interests of the spirit, and people began to wash themselves a little more often. Of course, things had not yet reached such a flourishing of the bathing custom, as it was in Ancient Rome, but the aristocracy began to wash much more often in their family vats, and they began to change the bathing water for each family member. Having gained a taste for it, the aristocracy remembered about the baths, and the bathing activity began to slowly revive. In England, the parliament even issued a special bill, according to which it was necessary not only to build baths, but also to reduce the cost of bath services in general and water in particular.
Already at the end of the 17th - beginning of the 17th centuries, bathhouses were built everywhere in Europe; However, the vats for bathing in them remained “common”; up to five people washed in them at the same time. But in the baths for the aristocracy, everyone was offered an individual tub, and this was a real luxury! The water for bathing in such baths was heated in a rather troublesome way: in a special room there were huge boilers filled with cold water. In the same room, large stones were heated in special ovens. When the stones became white-hot, the bath attendants pulled them out of the oven with tongs and lowered them into a vat of water. In order to heat a cauldron of water to the required temperature, it was necessary to immerse more than a dozen hot boulders into it, and the entire procedure took at least an hour of hard labor.
These were the difficulties faced by Europeans who wanted to wash off the dirt; Apparently, for this reason, visits to the baths, although regular, were nevertheless still insufficient. So perfumers and wig makers still continued to thrive. Only the situation was somewhat different in the northern countries - Finland, Norway and Sweden. There they steamed in the bathhouses and did it with great pleasure, regardless of religious instructions or prohibitions.
So who invented the Russian bathhouse?
It is very difficult to establish exactly when bathhouses - log houses - appeared in Rus'. The first mention dates back to the records of Nestor the chronicler of the 5th-6th centuries. At that time, only wealthy communities, artels and princes could build a real bath house. Today it seems that it’s easy to install a chopped frame, but at that time it was very difficult to come up with and install a log house, without modern tools. Yes, in modern times it is quite difficult to find a craftsman who would come up with and make a good bathhouse from a log.
The community was required to build one of its own log bathhouses; no one was allowed into it except its own. A full-fledged bathhouse was built on the outflow of the river; steam rooms were not installed on ponds and lakes; it was believed that a merman or a goblin could live in such a building. Nearby they could come up with a black steam room in which the sick, livestock could be treated, and a traveler or stranger could spend the night.
Egyptian history
Already in a more civilized and familiar form, baths appeared in Ancient Egypt. There they became acquainted with their pleasant and beneficial effects six thousand years before you and me. The priests and the upper classes of society attached incredible importance to the purity of the body. They washed themselves four times a day, twice at night and twice during the day. Such a ritual was often carried out using baths, since in addition to cleanliness, the Egyptians revered massage and moderation in food, which together made it possible to preserve the youth of soul and body. And massage after a bath was considered one of the most healing methods of healing. Egyptian medicine of that time was recognized as one of the best, and doctors could not do without water procedures and tireless recommendations for steam and baths.
The first baths in Rus'
The first Russian steam rooms were adobe or adobe tents with a stove-stove lined inside from pebbles. The coating quickly cracked, so someone came up with the idea of lining the walls inside the steam room with a slab. The heater was laid out on clay and fired for several days in a huge fire pit, long before the building itself was built. The result was a stove that had to be slowly heated a day before the start of the bath procedures.
The poorest sections of the population could be content with smoking and black bathhouses. The problem was in the stove; often from the heat and water it became covered with cracks and filled the dugout or chicken house with acrid smoke. For a long time, a smoke sauna was the only way to fight dermatitis and lice, until someone came up with a stove with smoke exhaust through a hole in the ceiling.
There were also camp baths or washing facilities. One of the military men came up with the idea of taking a steam bath while on a hike to relieve fatigue from the workload. The structure of the washing facilities was ingeniously simple; in essence, it was an insulated, leather-lined tent, soaked in fat and wax. A stone platform was laid out in a place of suitable size and a fire was lit. Next, the ash was removed, boards were laid on top of the heated stone, a tent was erected, and the Russian camp bath was ready.
The cult of the bath in Ancient Rome
The ancient Romans generally valued all bath procedures and even elevated the bath to a special cult. Here they not only washed and had massages, but also organized special rooms for reading books, studying poetry, and drawing. Quite often, sports training sessions and even competitions were held in the baths.
Ancient Roman baths
In a word, the Romans preferred to relax in the bathhouse not only with their bodies, but also with their souls. The great healers of that time argued: in order to get rid of illness and get sick a little, you need to be clean in body, have a bright, strong spirit, adhere to a certain diet and engage in moderate physical activity. These statements are more relevant today than ever.
The rich rulers of Rome spared no expense to build the most luxurious baths. The most expensive materials were used in architecture, which were imported from different countries. Very often, Roman baths (therms) were decorated with fountains, sculptures, columns and various paintings on the walls. Many of them even surpassed the palaces and “noble apartments” of rulers in their beauty.
In terms of its technical equipment, the baths can be considered high-tech structures of their time. In the latest versions of the baths, a central heating system with floor and wall heating was developed and widely used. All rooms were heated in this way: relaxation rooms, massage rooms, washrooms, steam rooms, rooms with a swimming pool.
Water was supplied through special water pipelines, and the sewage system was arranged in such a way that all water was drained through gutters into the central system. Small baths were heated with ordinary wood, and large “bath complexes” even used oil for heating.
Steam room from the Middle Ages, who invented the stove
From about the 11th-12th centuries, the bathhouse in ancient Rus' was a wooden frame, often built in the form of a dugout. Even then they came up with a hole in the ceiling into which they placed a tub of water. The exhaust gases from the furnace were discharged through a chimney - a long pipe made of stone and clay, laid in the ground at a slope at ceiling level.
The poorest population built bathhouses from aspen slabs, often far from the hut. In those days, bathhouse buildings, like livestock, were subject to taxes and taxes, so they were hidden and removed from view as best they could. In addition, the bathhouse was considered the habitat of a brownie or evil spirits, so the building was never consecrated by the clergy. They tried not to anger the “owner” of the bathhouse and appeased them as best they could. This is where the tradition came from: moss, herbs and brooms were stored under the canopy of the building.
Bath huts were invented for the wealthy segments of the population; in fact, this is the prototype of the modern Russian bathhouse. The room, made of good quality logs, was divided into two halves by a huge stove made of crushed stone on a mixture of lime and clay. This is the so-called “Milanese” stove. She warmed the bathhouse with only one back wall. We lit the stove from the street, after 6-8 hours the fire was extinguished, and we could steam for several hours.
Greek laconiums - the center of the cultural life of the Hellenes
In Europe, baths first appeared in Ancient Sparta. They were small round buildings with springs, in the middle of which there was a fireplace. The temperature in the building was high. Classical baths - laconiums - appeared in Greece during the Hellenistic era and were used by all citizens, regardless of status. The founder of the Laconiums was Alexander the Great. In 330, he was on a campaign in Egypt and there he became addicted to bathhouse traditions. Returning to his homeland, the emperor launched a grandiose construction project throughout the country and soon the laconiums became the center of the cultural life of the Greeks.
The quality of an old Russian bath
Around the 14th-15th century, Italian craftsmen who knew how to work with stove bricks appeared in Rus'. At that time in Italy, one of the talented craftsmen of Venice or Florence figured out how to properly burn bricks and build modern ovens. With the advent of the massive Russian stove, the bathhouse in Rus' began to acquire modern features.
In addition to the steam room itself, there was a stove in the room, tubs of water, and someone came up with the idea of building a heater separately. In old Russian baths, the heater was placed in the center on a special slab paved with flat stones. At that time, no one had yet figured out how to safely build a brick oven into a wooden partition, and there were no necessary materials.
The huge oven was filled with pebbled stones and thoroughly heated with firewood. Hot stones were placed on the stove and heated boiling water was poured over them. Only two hundred years later they figured out how to install a Russian stove so as not to accidentally burn the ceiling and the entire building. Evil tongues claim that the tradition of plunging into ice water began due to frequent burns and scalds with boiling water in the semi-darkness of the steam room. In fact, contrast bathing was invented long before the advent of the modern Russian bath, as a way to combat smoke inhalation.
What was in the imperial baths and what was treated in them?
Elizaveta Petrovna set the standard for the imperial baths: on her orders, the ceiling was painted by Russian painters under the direction of [Italian artist Antonio] Perezinotti. The bathhouse had both copper and wooden bathtubs, bound with iron hoops. Water was released from lead pipes, heated in a tinned boiler in a stove, and poured into copper ladles. The queen also ordered a crystal bath, but it is not known whether this order was fulfilled.
At the same time, the tradition of having our own doctors appeared. Under Elizaveta Petrovna, the doctor Sanchez served, who independently published the work “A Respectful Essay on Russian Baths,” where, comparing Russian baths with Roman and Turkish ones, he gave preference to Russian ones due to the heating of steam using a heater stove. Sanchez wrote: “Being composed of the elemental particles of fire and air and renewed at will, [steam] softens and does not relax. It expands the weapon in the breath, combat other veins, returns and restores these parts to the state in which they were before.”
During the cholera epidemic, Nicholas I specially came to the soap shop after traveling far away. There he washed thoroughly, completely changed his clothes, and only then went to his family. And the empress and wife of Alexander II, Maria Alexandrovna, suffering from consumption, alleviated her suffering there; she believed that she was prolonging her life through contrast baths.
In the 19th century, special baths and wet wraps were prescribed for relatives of emperors: the patient was wrapped in a sheet, covered with a blanket and feather bed, and given cold water to drink. After sweat began to appear, he was put under a cold shower, and then immersed in a bath.
The emperors, like all Russian people, believed in the healing power of baths, but also simply enjoyed going there. The bathhouse has had a dual function since the times of Ancient Rus': on the one hand, a person washes and enjoys the warm air, and on the other, he receives treatment.
Lobby of the Central Baths E.S. Egorova
Ancient India and Greece
After the Egyptians, the desire for cleanliness and relaxation captured India (this happened about two thousand years BC). Here the baths were used both as an excellent remedy and as a source of personal hygiene.
Ancient Greece also did not ignore the healing effects of steam. Baths were originally built here by the Spartans. They looked like round small buildings, in the middle of which there was an open hearth, where the stones were heated, and the high temperature inside was maintained.
