What were the baths of the 18th century like, how aristocrats were treated in steam rooms for cholera and consumption, and how emperors were steamed

Why was a chandelier-shower installed in the imperial baths, who ordered a crystal bath for the royal soap house, what kind of underwear was worn in the steam rooms and how were they treated with crushed worms?

“Paper” spoke with the head of the Bath complex in Peterhof, Irina Suvorova, about when and why baths became an important part of Russian culture and in which baths in St. Petersburg the emperors took a steam bath.

Irina Suvorova

Head of the Monplaisir complex sector of the Bath complex in Peterhof

What were the bathhouses like in Ancient Rus' and where did the first residents of St. Petersburg take a steam bath?

Vladimir Ivanovich Dal revealed in sufficient detail the semantics of the word “bathhouse”. It comes from the word “banit”, which in the old days meant “to wash, clean with water”, and “bath” - to wash. Speaking about baths, Dahl meant a Russian steam bath, a building or rest, where they bathe not just in dry heat, but in steam.

In Rus' there were definitely baths at least in the 10th century. This conclusion can be drawn from Igor Bogdanov’s rich research “Three centuries of the St. Petersburg bathhouse”. Bogdanov writes that the Arab traveler Ibn Rust at the beginning of the 10th century described the “baths of the northerners” as follows: “In their country, the cold is so strong that each of them digs a ditch in the ground for a cellar, to which they attach a wooden pointed roof, like a church. They move into such cellars with their entire family, taking firewood and stones. They light a fire and heat the stones red hot. When the stones are heated to the limit, water is poured on them, which spreads steam, heating the house to the point that they even take off their clothes.”

From there you can find out that the chronicler Nestor, who lived at the end of the 11th - beginning of the 12th centuries, wrote that the Slavs who lived in the northern forests voluntarily subjected themselves to the “painful procedure” [of washing in a hot bath], which gave them “painful joy.” Nestor also describes the procedure for washing in a bathhouse, noting the widespread nature of this phenomenon. The chronicler says that this “has been from ancient times” an integral part of the life of a Russian person.

With all this, the bathing business was not regulated by rulers for a long time. In village baths, men and women steamed together until the 16th century. This only stopped under Ivan the Terrible in 1551, when the Stoglavy Council banned “joint washing” “in order to prevent a possible fall into sin.”

At first, after the creation of St. Petersburg, everyone was allowed to build baths. Which, by the way, many residents took advantage of. At that time, baths were not yet subject to duties, and this was profitable. The only condition was to build baths away from housing and exclusively from stone.

Within a few months, Peter I, seeing the people’s passion for baths, decided to take advantage of it. In 1704, he issued a decree introducing a monetary tax from each public and home bathhouse in all cities and counties. Since then, the government began to encourage the creation of public baths. According to the drafted charter “On the Bath Collection”, 3 rubles were taken from the boyars, 1 ruble from the servicemen, and 15 kopecks per year from the archers, service Cossacks and peasants.

At the same time, the baths kept getting bigger and bigger. As researcher Naum Sindalovsky writes, we can talk at least about the Voronin baths with marble decoration, baths in the Admiralty Courtyard, Fonarny Lane and near the Harbor. They became places of power for people of different classes; each of them had its own reputation.

Public baths on the Neglinnaya River in the 17th century.

Features of the bathhouse in Rus'

As a rule, since ancient times there has been a division in Rus', due to which two opposite directions have formed: women's and men's bathhouses. This is not to say that this is wrong, but this approach is rather inspired by the remnants of socialism, since previously our country used a common bathhouse, and in some countries, joint bathing procedures are still practiced to this day. Peoples who practice this approach are proud of it and even spread similar trends at the national level.

Separation by gender, i.e. women's and men's baths is completely pointless, since it violates the very principle of taking a bath. It should cleanse and liberate, free from worries, but in this state of affairs this is impossible. What does the concept of a shared bath mean? The title is the answer to this question. A common bathhouse is a bathhouse in which both women and men are not divided into opposite castes; on the contrary, they undergo all procedures in one room together. That is why public baths are gradually making up for lost popularity and winning new sympathy among ordinary people.

The bathhouse in Rus' is not only a place for steaming and washing - it was a more complex mechanism of rituals that have been formed over centuries in our society. All accompanying products, be it a mug of beer or a birch broom, have firmly and inseparably entered our consciousness, and it is almost impossible to imagine a modern bathhouse without their use.

Why and for whom Peter I created the imperial bath

Peter I, as follows from his travel journal, took a steam bath in the city baths, but soon switched to his own. So, in 1714, the emperor ordered the construction of the Monplaisir Palace in Peterhof, and by 1719–1721 it was decided to complete the construction of guest rooms, in one of which a soap shop was built, now known as the Bath complex. It was a spacious room, reminiscent of an ordinary Russian bathhouse, only with small nuances. It had a stove on which, instead of stones, there were huge cast-iron cannonballs: they turned out to be more durable and warmed up the room faster.

Peter I himself loved to steam and washed often and a lot. Judging by his travel log, he visited the bathhouse once a week as usual, or more often if he was unwell. Here he steamed, and if necessary, on the recommendations of doctors, he bled himself or took medicine from crushed worms and woodlice.

His wife Catherine I also loved to take a steam bath, and she was given access to the imperial bathhouse. But she always chose other days so as not to run into her husband.

At that time, only selected associates of the emperor visited this bathhouse; it was considered the best in the country. There they performed bloodletting, attached leeches and thus tried to physically cleanse themselves.

After the death of Peter I, the soap shop began to deteriorate. Only in 1748, under Elizabeth Petrovna, was it recognized as a relic of Peter the Great and moved to the Upper Garden, where it stood until the end of the 18th century. At the same place, by order of the queen, Rastrelli built a new soap house, but made of wood, with swimming pools and additional rooms in the attached outbuilding. Since then, guests relaxing in the outbuilding could also visit the royal bathhouse.

Swimming pool in the Central Baths of E.S. Egorova

“If it weren’t for the bathhouse, we would all be lost. History of the ancient Russian tradition"

The bathhouse occupies a special status in Russian culture. In folklore, it is, first of all, a place of cleansing and renewal: “I washed myself in the bathhouse - as if I was born again,” “The bathhouse will wash away all sins.” Another key function of the bathhouse is to establish a sense of community and even separate friends from enemies. The book by Slavic studies professor Ethan Pollock “If it weren’t for the bathhouse, we would all be lost. The History of the Ancient Russian Tradition" (publishing house "Corpus"), translated into Russian by Tatyana Azarkovich, is dedicated to bathhouse culture and the relationship of Russian people with this tradition. The author studies its history, noting that despite changes in ideas about bodily purity, as well as historical and social upheavals, the essence of the Russian bath has remained unchanged. N+1

invites its readers to familiarize themselves with an excerpt that tells how the foreigner Antonio Riber Sanchez convinced Catherine II (and the whole world) of the health benefits of the Russian bath.

Although Catherine deliberately avoided discussing this topic in her Antidote, she was well aware of the health benefits of the bath thanks to her communication with another foreigner and figure of the Enlightenment, Antonio Ribero Sanchez. Unlike Shapp, Sanchez was familiar with the latest Western medical theories regarding washing. And, unlike the French traveler, he knew that some doctors in Western Europe began to value preventive and ordinary baths, as well as to use bathing to treat specific diseases. During the 1720s, Sánchez studied medicine in Portugal, England, France, and at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, where he worked with Hermann Boerhaave, the eminent professor of medicine of the time. Most likely, there Sanchez came into contact with innovative methods of treating syphilis (later it was he who would write an article on this topic for Denis Diderot’s Encyclopedia) and heard critical reviews of bloodletting (which, as he later discovered, was often practiced in the baths). While Chappe was an amateur when it came to the human body, Sanchez was an expert.

Over the next three decades, Sanchez gained experience that allowed him to promote the medical value of bathing procedures, and Catherine began to willingly listen to his opinion. In 1730, when Empress Anna Ioannovna sent a letter to Boerhaave asking him to send doctors to serve in Russia, he chose Sanchez. In 1731 he was appointed chief attending physician of Moscow. Soon he was invited to practice in St. Petersburg, and in 1735 he became the first doctor of the imperial army and remained in this position for six years. During military campaigns - first in Poland, and then in the southern steppes - he learned that the bathhouse was widely used in the Russian army. He also noticed that Russian peasants and residents of small Russian towns go to the bathhouse everywhere.

St. Petersburg Sanchez returned as a physician of the Russian court and as a state adviser. He treated Anna Ioannovna until the end of her days. Although the diagnosis he made to the queen—nephrolithiasis—was too late and it was already too late for treatment, Sanchez’s very ability to correctly identify the disease confirmed his professionalism in the eyes of his colleagues and at court. After Anna's death, he successfully cured the Duke of Holstein and was assigned to Princess Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst, the future Catherine the Great. In 1744, shortly after arriving in Russia, the 14-year-old princess became seriously ill. As the empress herself later recalled in her memoirs, she “remained between life and death for twenty-seven days.” And then finally, Catherine said, “the abscess that was on my right side burst, thanks to the efforts of the Portuguese doctor Sanhetz [sic]; I spat it out with vomit, and from that moment I came to my senses.” So Sanchez won the admiration and trust of Catherine.

Despite the good deed done, Sanchez’s luck soon ran out: after Anna’s death, there was no place for him at the court of the new queen, Elizabeth, and in 1747 he left for Paris. He continued to maintain close (albeit secret) connections with Russian aristocrats in Paris, where they were sitting out a bad time and waiting for changes at the imperial court. In 1762, Elizabeth died and Peter III, Catherine's husband, ascended the Russian throne. He reigned for only six months, and then Catherine staged a coup that allowed her to take power into her own hands. This gave Sanchez the opportunity to prove himself again. And indeed, a few months later the young empress gave him an annual salary of a thousand rubles: “Because he saved my life, with God’s help.”

Soon after this, Sanchez wrote to Catherine about the bath. The main idea he wanted to convey was the value of this procedure for the health of the Russian people. His ideas quickly penetrated into the codes of Russian laws. In 1766, Catherine quoted a letter from Sanchez, who convinced her of the following: “It is extremely necessary to introduce baths into use as the most reliable protection against many diseases and a means of strengthening the human body.” Sanchez o. He also pointed out that “Russian soldiers know better the great and significant benefits of the bathhouse.” Catherine agreed with him, noting that “the local baths, used in the way that Mr. Sanches prescribes, are the best and unsurpassed means of preserving the health, strength and strength” of the people. She also stated that all known nations agreed with all this, but “a single superstition destroyed the baths in Europe,” “and this destruction was paid for by a dangerous disease that began in Italy, and then in France around 1480.”

The Empress turned to Sanchez again when the time came to issue a new law on the proper use of baths. Judging by the change in laws, the authorities were now interested in the bathhouse more as a source of health than as a source of income. This is what Sanchez wrote to the empress: “God willing! So that Physicists and Doctors in Russia experience the benefits that all people can receive from the bathhouse.” He insisted that “according to political laws, in every Russian city, town and village there should be bathhouses according to the number of inhabitants under good supervision,” that is, that one should think not only about profit. The law was intended to regulate the use of baths so that visiting them would bring maximum health benefits. It was noted that people often use even such a healing remedy as a bathhouse for their own harm: some enter the steam room when it is still too hot, others climb too early to the top, hottest shelves. Others “rub themselves with strong alcohol and caustic roots” or “out of thirst constantly drink cold water, and sometimes with ice.” It happened that people died from such extremes. The law warned: “One must be very careful against such terrible abuse.” Sanchez, an experienced doctor, recommended visiting the bathhouse once a week and not immediately after meals, entering the steam room after “putting cold water on the heater,” which makes the air “pleasant,” and spending two hours there. He did not recommend drinking grape wine, vodka, or cold drinks in the bathhouse. He recommended leaving the steam room to a warm dressing room, where he could lie down “on the bed” and rest; Children should never be lifted onto the upper shelves. All this, now codified, advice was based solely on the experience of a foreign doctor, and not on the long-rooted customs of the Russian people themselves.

In 1766, Sanchez's influence on Catherine clearly strengthened, although, probably, their communication took place only in private correspondence. In 1770, Chappe's book was published with an outrageous description of Russia and with an obscene engraving by Leprince depicting a bathhouse. Since Sanchez was interested in Russia and had visited some of the places Shapp visited, he most likely read A Journey to Siberia. In 1771, the doctor shared his thoughts about the bath with one of Catherine’s closest advisers, Ivan Betsky. In 1777, Sánchez was ready to make his views public: he gave a talk on the subject of the bath before the Royal Society of Medicine in Leiden, and then published his Traité sur les bains de vapeur de Russie

(“About Russian steam baths”). Soon this treatise was translated into German and Russian. In 1779 it was printed in St. Petersburg, in the imperial printing house “for the benefit of society,” and then reprinted in Moscow in 1791.

In the introduction to his book, Sanchez expressed the hope that he would be able to convince readers of the “benefits of the bath.” Keeping in mind the debate about the position of Russia as a whole - whether it is an enlightened country or vice versa - with the publication of his book he sought to protect the reputation of the empire, which he himself had served for a long time. In private correspondence with Catherine, Sanchez drew the empress's attention to the medical benefits of the bath. Now, by publishing his treatise, the doctor hoped to convey his thoughts to colleagues throughout Europe. For the first time, a well-respected doctor and scientist presented substantiated arguments proving the health benefits of the Russian bath.

Sanchez began convincingly and in detail to talk about how the Russian bathhouse helps prevent and treat a variety of diseases. He tried to prove that the steam bath had significant advantages over other methods of washing, which were gaining popularity in Western Europe at that time. Sanchez began by reviewing the history of “civilized” ablutions dating back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, noting that even then people understood that washing the body was a necessary procedure for maintaining physical and mental health. The European "barbarians" never learned this lesson, and in the Middle Ages in Western Europe, washing became a lost art. In modern Western Europe, Sanchez continued, washing is too often considered a luxury or self-indulgence. And, he added, even when people wash for health reasons, they often do it incorrectly - so that they can hardly achieve the desired results.

Many of the methods that were gaining popularity in Europe, Sanchez said, were too messy to provide any health benefits. If a person lay down in the bath, then his head found himself in the air at a different temperature than the temperature of the water in which the rest of the body was located. This harmed the lungs and caused headaches, colds and other ailments. In Germany and Italy, bath attendants too often performed bloodletting on patients. With the Turkish baths, which were becoming fashionable in London, the situation was no better: the steam was often not renewed, too many people breathed the same air, and the moisture that collected and stagnated on the walls and floor posed a serious danger to those who came into contact with it . Incorrect steam temperature also led to illness. In a word, all these bathing methods threatened to weaken the human body.

Sanchez stated: “For my part, I consider only one Russian Bath, properly prepared, capable of bringing such great benefits to humanity.” According to the scientist, the Russian bathhouse took all the best from the Greek and Roman baths: in its premises you can control the temperature, the freshness of the steam, the quality of air, water and fire. For people who felt healthy and strong, Sanchez recommended a full course of procedures: sweat, rub with soap, steam with a birch broom, and then douse yourself with warm or cold water. “Such friction, steaming, and pumping with warm or cold water in the Bath serve as uniformly great relief and excellent healing even in passions that oppress the soul.” For the sick or weak, the bath was even more important. Sanchez asserted that “fits arising from strong body movements and from sudden changes in air, from concussions and colds, from eating too much, from drinking too much and from other excesses in life, [which] produce relaxation and languor in the whole body, and the like “—all this can be healed in a bathhouse. Elsewhere he added:

Feeling tired, feeling heaviness in the head, having swollen and heavy eyes, disgusted and tired of the slightest movement from strong military exploits, or from hunting, or from farming, or from fishing, or from working in mining plants and salt pans, factories and from other things, those who were intemperate, enjoying bodily pleasure; having pain inside and swelling; injured by falling from a horse or in any other way; I say to everyone, they will find the Bathhouse the best medicine for themselves.

<…>If you suffer from great pain in the head, chills, as if they are lifting the skin, burning inside, aching in the kidneys and calves because it won’t let you lie on your sides or on your back, a tightness in the stomach, or it is swollen, the tongue becomes dry , yellowish, whitish or blackish, and the eyes are red and puffy, the voices will change and the urine is thick with sediment.

All this can also be treated with a bath. Sanchez claimed that even “smallpox, measles and other diseases of this kind, associated with strong internal heat, pain, thirst and difficulty breathing” can be treated with the bath; it also helps with “diseases arising from a spoiled stomach, such as: if someone has an aversion to food, someone who cannot cook it, who feels heaviness, severe pain; who is constantly induced to vomit, and especially after eating; who has wind, sour mouth or diarrhea; for such people it is necessary to go to the Bathhouse every day.” Scurvy, smallpox, as well as cramps in the side, inflammation of the eyes, colds accompanied by fits, spasms or seizures, croup and various blood diseases - all this is also alleviated by bath procedures. Sanchez recommended going to the bathhouse even after being bitten by rabid animals: “It happens everywhere that dogs, horses and cats go crazy at any time of the year,” and prolonged exposure to intense heat and sweating avert rabies.

The effectiveness of the bath was also noted in the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, which Sanchez was very well versed in and which caused great concern to Catherine. Sanchez wrote that when a venereal disease is advanced and difficult to treat, bath procedures can relieve pain and inflammation. Previously, he had already put forward a hypothesis according to which sexually transmitted diseases could be transmitted from mother to newborn. That is why, he believed, in large Russian cities, three out of ten babies die during childbirth or shortly after. A timely visit to the bathhouse - five to six days before giving birth - could reduce this mortality rate.

Read more:
Pollock,
I. If it weren't for the bathhouse, we would all be lost. History of the ancient Russian tradition / Ethan Pollock; lane from English Tatiana Azarkovich. - Moscow: AST Publishing House: CORPUS, 2021. - 496 p.

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

Visiting order

We went to the bathhouse in a strict order. At first the men went there. Then – women. Now they would say that this is real discrimination. In Rus' this was the order of things. Patriarchal society, nothing can be done. I think that the women did nothing to change the order of visiting the bathhouse.

In general, there was nothing surprising in this. Another thing is more interesting: you couldn’t go to the bathhouse third. It was believed that she was busy with the bannik.

According to legend, if someone dared to go to the bathhouse for the third time, then the spirit of the steam room would become very angry and could release fumes into the steam room, or they could throw boiling water over them.

Whether there were such cases, I don’t know. Maybe. In any case, all the incidents that happened in the baths were probably attributed to the bannik. They say he punished people for not following traditions. There’s no point in angering grandpa!

How peasants and kings steamed

By the 18th century, the bathhouse had already become, according to the historian [Nikolai] Kostomarov, the first need of the Russian person in home life, both for cleanliness and for pleasure. There was even a saying: “The bathhouse soars, the bathhouse rules, the bathhouse will fix everything.”

There is evidence that even at the beginning of the 17th century, residents jumped into the ice hole in the cold after a bath, came back, and then ran out again. Only birch brooms were brought to the baths, which were used to tear and scrape the body to better open the pores.

Chamber cadet Friedrich Berchholtz, who was in the retinue of his father Count Wilhelm at the court of Peter I, spoke in his diary about the ritual of washing in a Russian bath. According to him, those who wanted to take a steam bath were placed on a shelf laid with straw and covered with a clean tablecloth; after a few minutes, the bathhouse attendant began to whip the person taking a steam bath with a birch broom, which opened the pores and increased the perspiration. The bath attendant then vigorously rubbed it with his fingers all over the body to remove impurities, and rubbed it with soap and washed it with warm or cold water as desired. Berchholz found the whole procedure pleasant, and he claimed that “it was as if he had been born again.”

The records of Sanchez and Berchholz indicate that the traditions of the classical Russian bath can be traced in imperial circles. In essence, the procedure did not change for people of different strata. The emperors steamed with the same tools that, for example, peasants used: ladles, steamers, gangs, and so on. And if you trace this tradition further, you will notice that even in the mists of time, during the times of Ancient Rus', everything followed a similar scenario.

This can be explained by the fact that the Russian bathhouse originally contained many important traditions. So, it was in Ancient Rus' that the first people began to use brooms - this is the most important difference between our bathhouse and the European one. In the Russian bathhouse, chamomile, mint, lavender, marjoram, lemon balm and sage were often used for aroma, and brooms were brewed in them: linden - for colds, birch - for lungs, oak - for muscle pain, juniper - for pulmonary diseases, viburnum - for cough, and also from elderberry - for joints.

Washing visitors in the bathhouses of the Egorov brothers

How to properly take a steam bath in a Russian bath

In order for bath procedures to have beneficial effects on the body and not cause harm, it is important to steam correctly. Violation of recommendations can lead to negative consequences, even if there are no contraindications for health reasons.

Preparatory activities

You need to properly prepare for your stay in the steam room:

• two hours before the procedure, it is advisable to have a light snack, but not to overeat;
• the day before and on the day of going to the bathhouse, you should not drink alcohol;
• girls are not recommended to wear a swimsuit made of synthetic materials, so as not to cause irritation on steamed skin;

• before the steam room you need to take a warm shower, but without soap and other cosmetics;
• Before entering the steam room, you need to remove all jewelry so that it does not burn your skin;
• the head must be covered with a scarf (cap), the hair must be dry.

Steaming procedure

Steam plus heat is the formula for a real Russian bath. This mode promotes maximum warming of the body, but you need to get used to it gradually.

1. When you enter the steam room for the first time, sit downstairs, warm up, and when you get used to the temperature, climb onto the shelf and lie on it for 5-10 minutes. As soon as you feel that you are sweating, rinse with warm water in the shower and rest for 5 minutes. Then you can make a second visit. In general, the time spent in the steam room for the first time is about ten minutes. At the slightest deterioration in health, you must leave the steam room without waiting for it to “go away on its own.”

2. You shouldn’t use a broom on your first try. This is only an “acquaintance” with the microclimate, even if the bathhouse is already a lifestyle and home. Not to mention the newcomers trying their hand. When you first enter, the body adapts to the increased temperature and humidity, the blood vessels dilate, the pores open, and increased sweating begins. Procedures with a broom begin with the second pass.
3. It is better to start vaping from the bottom shelf, where the temperature is lower and there is more oxygen. You need to sit on the shelves, or better yet lie down, relax, breathe evenly and deeply. After warming up until your heart rate increases, you can move higher.
4. You need to be careful with steam cake. The steam from the stove rises to the ceiling and concentrates there in a thick layer, depending on the amount of water that has evaporated. In its pure form it is not suitable for vaping, but it is excellent for creating a mix. It is taken little by little with a broom and distributed evenly over the body. But in this matter the main thing is not to overdo it, otherwise you can not only steam yourself, but also seriously scald yourself. Therefore, the main movements with a broom are performed in a layer of gentle, conditioned steam, and the cake is added to make the procedure more effective.

5. The standard soaring scheme is two or three passes for 10-15 minutes, with a 10-minute rest between them. In the second, third and subsequent visits, 10 minutes is usually enough. But, these indicators may vary depending on your health status.
6. To increase the beneficial effects of steam on the body and aromatherapy, you can use essential oils and herbal decoctions in the steam room. Concentrated ethers cannot be dripped directly onto stones, and it is also undesirable to add them to water for giving. The best steam for steaming comes from pure hot water without impurities, and to combine a bathhouse with aromatherapy, there are safe and effective ways: Steam herbs (thyme, lemon balm, mint, yarrow) in a container on a heater, hang bunches of dry herbs over the ceiling or spread them out on the shelf, drip essential oil onto a linden board, add the herbal infusion to hot water to soak the broom.

7. All movements in the steam room should be slow and measured. The body works under overload, even if you just lie on a shelf, and even more so if you steam with a broom. A sudden change of position is not allowed. After rising from the shelf, it is advisable to sit for a couple of minutes to stabilize your pulse and blood pressure. After leaving the steam room, you should not lie down or sit down immediately; it is better to stand or walk around for a while.

8. Contrast procedures in the steam room are beneficial for the body. After overheating, sudden cooling mobilizes the body's internal reserves, a sharp release of adrenaline occurs, which tones the blood vessels and gives indescribable sensations. To cheer up and not harm yourself, the water should be cold, not icy, and the procedure itself should be quick. Even the most seasoned are not recommended to stay in the pool for more than a minute. For beginners, it is not recommended to pour on the head; the body is enough.

9. After visiting the steam room 3-4 times, you can rub yourself with a hard mitten during breaks. Before completing the procedures, you can apply cleansing scrubs and masks to your body and face, then wash them off with a warm shower.

Expert opinion

Lovkachev Boris Petrovich

Bath master who knows everything about steaming

Important! Increased sweating can lead to dehydration, so while vaping it is important to constantly drink water, but in moderation, so as not to overload the heart and kidneys with excess fluid. At the end of the procedure, herbal teas and fruit drinks are useful.

How to end the vaping process

Steam room, drying with a towel, getting dressed and leaving the bath - an erroneous scheme for carrying out and finishing the procedures:

during your last visit to the steam room, you should not use a towel, since “rubbing” movements will only increase sweating;

It is strictly forbidden to go outside until your breathing has stabilized, your heart rate has returned to a state of calm, and your body temperature has stabilized.

The right thing to do would be to sit in the dressing room, dry off, relax, and only then leave the walls of the bathhouse. You can only wrap yourself in a towel or warm robe. If you rush, everything will instantly become saturated with sweat, which will reduce all the benefits of the procedures to nothing.

It is better to relax in the dressing room for 20-30 minutes, drink warm tea, dry off and only then leave the establishment.

How baths were improved and why a chandelier-shower was needed

Even under Elizaveta Petrovna, Rastrelli installed a lifting bottom in the imperial soap house in Peterhof, thanks to which water from the bay entered there. A special spray ball was installed here in the 1770s, which sprayed everyone. This was how they repeated the Russian tradition, according to which after a bath you need to cool down with water in order to harden the body.

In Tsarskoye Selo there were the Upper Baths, where Catherine II took a steam bath (the room consists of an entrance hall, a “dressing room”, a bathroom, a steam room, a stoker’s room and a relaxation room, decorated with copies of frescoes from the Golden House of Emperor Nero - note from “Papers” ). The courtiers came there in their underwear: girls in white cambric or silk shirts, men in white linen underpants and an undershirt.

After 1817, when the soap house in Peterhof was overhauled and Peter’s building was completely changed, even those who did not have close contact with the court could come to it. After the renovation, the new soap house began to be called the “Bathhouse for gentlemen and ladies-in-waiting.” The large steam room was lined with linden; they made their own entrance for the gentlemen, and their own for the ladies-in-waiting. At the same time, foot benches for baths, foot mats, an octagonal pool and more appeared. Thanks to the copper ball fountain, when leaving the bathhouse, a wave of many jets of water fell on the gentlemen and ladies-in-waiting, also beating from above, thus forming a water curtain.

Only in 1865–1866 did the architect Eduard Gan build a one-story red brick complex there, which has since been called the Bath complex. A polished oak bathtub built into the floor was installed in the Cold Bath. To enter it, steps were made with railings made of turned balusters. A gilded shower chandelier was installed on the ceiling. At the final stage, the person descended into an oak barrel, into which water came from the Gulf of Finland.

Beneficial and harmful properties of the bath

Why did the bathhouse deserve such popularity earlier and thanks to what qualities does it retain its position to this day? The answer lies not only in the washing process, because in addition to cleanliness, the bathhouse also brings considerable benefits to humans. In the bathhouse, the process of cleansing not only the skin, but also the entire human body occurs. Here are just a few of the many factors that have a beneficial effect on health:

• improved blood circulation;
• removal of toxins and waste;
• general strengthening effect.

All these positive qualities are achieved through the effect of hot water vapor on the body. Increased humidity combined with high temperature heats up the body and forces all systems and processes occurring in it to work with double activity. Together with sweating, most toxins and wastes are removed from the body, pores and glands are cleaned, and tissues are renewed.

However, there are a number of restrictions, in the presence of which you should pay special attention to visiting the bathhouse, or even abandon it altogether:

• high blood pressure;
• heart diseases;
• open wounds on the body.

As mentioned above, when visiting a bathhouse, all processes in the body accelerate. Health problems such as high blood pressure and heart disease are not at all conducive to bath procedures, since the process may cause malfunctions. Therefore, for your own safety, you should refuse to visit the bathhouse or at least not go through all the procedures in full.

If the first two points are dangerous to one’s own health, then open wounds on the body can also harm others: when human tissue dies, it can be a breeding ground for diseases, and in such a favorable warm and humid environment, the process of their spread will be instantaneous. Therefore, you should take care not only of your health, but also of the people around you. Bath, sauna, hammam or any other name for this cult process does not change its meaning, but only makes certain adjustments to the ritual of its acceptance. The cultures of different peoples are embodied not only in art and music, all the features of their mentality are also reflected in the procedure for taking a bath.

In Rus', the adoption of baths at one time became widespread, no matter whether it was for men or women. At the moment, such a sanctimonious campaign fades into the background, floats into the past, is forgotten, and the construction and use of common baths is increasingly practiced, which is a big plus from the point of view of purification and moral peace of a person.

Preparation of brooms

Oh, it was a special procedure! Firstly, it was recommended to go into the forest for a broom on a full moon. Allegedly, the trees were imbued with special power at this time. Maybe they are also getting drunk now.

Secondly, if you decided to break branches, you had to ask the tree for forgiveness. Caring for nature is the right approach. Do you agree?