Russian sauna or banya

Russian Banya – introduction

Russian sauna, called banya, is a very old tradition in Russia. Already centuries ago, as witnessed by the Greek historian Herodotus, Slavic people living in what will become Russia in the future, had steam saunas.

Differences between banya and other types of sauna and steam rooms

Russian sauna can be classified as a type of steam sauna, which means that it has a temperature of about 45 – 65 C and relative humidity of 40 – 65% (where steam baths have a relative humidity of 100%, wet saunas about 20-35% and dry saunas 5-10% and temperatures increase as the relative humidity lowers, up to a maximum of about 100 C in dry saunas). However, there is another aspect in which banya differs from other steam saunas, which is the stove and the way the water is vaporised. Water is heated on hot stones but, unlike in other types of saunas, in Russian banya the stones are located inside a stove that is completely insulated, except for a front door that is opened only to pour water on the stones. Russian banya stoves are massive and made of bricks. This system allows the stones to get much hotter than in normal open stoves, which means that the water thrown on those stones will get evaporate faster and produce a finer and lighter type of steam.

Accessories and terminology of Russian banya

Russian banya is made up by three rooms: the entrance room (with pegs on which to hang clothes and benches); the washing room and the steam room, called parilka (where there are wooden benches, a wood stove and a bucket with a ladle and water to be thrown onto the stones).
Inside a Russian sauna, people usually wear felt hats called chapkas to protect their heads against the heat and allow them to stay longer in the sauna. There are also specially designed pads, called padjopnik, on which to sit, as the wooden benches become too hot to be seated on comfortably.

Russian banya procedure

The correct procedure to have a Russiam steam sauna involves having a light shower first (without wetting your hair to prevent overheating), drying your body and then having a few sessions in the sauna. It is extremely important to cool down, either in fresh air or with cold water, between each sauna session.

Whisk bathing with venik

Whisk bathing is part of the Russian sauna experience. Only from the second sauna session onwards, bathers slightly whisk themselves or each other with bunches of dried or fresh (according to the season) branches and leaves, usually birch or oak, called venik, in order to improve blood circulation. There are many types of venik massage, but the massage usually starts with moving the air around the person’s body, very close to the skin but almost without touching it, from the feet upwards along the body. Afterward the masseur lightly whips the bather’s body and this is followed by what is called birch poultice, pushing the whisks to the body.

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