There was a Russian bath. The history of the bath: varieties and the most interesting facts of their origin. History of ancient baths
Myths about the Russian bath - a very rare topic and vehemently guarded by fans of light steam. Why protected? By virtue of boundless love for the bath, for brooms, for rituals and traditions around the bath. This love is strengthened by the fact that “in the bathhouse” many people earn financial profit, from Internet writers of articles to order and ending with sellers of stoves in stores who have never taken a steam bath in a Russian bathhouse. All these motley writers and merchants wrote so much and so much unnecessary around the bathhouse that the real history of the Russian folk bathhouse was under the threat of complete rewriting and distortion.
To begin with, let's define who and what does he mean when he talks about the Russian bath? To do this, we divide the information into several types depending on the submission:
1) The Internet submission of copywriters and optimizers who do not understand baths begins like this: “from time immemorial”, “from ancient times”, “from time immemorial, the Russian bath has been popular”, etc. This last sentence makes me laugh hysterically. It's like writing that sitting at the table while eating was very popular and common, or, for example, cloth clothes were in special demand among our ancestors. These phrases are equally meaningless and have nothing to do with the history of the bathhouse. It's just that copywriters get paid for 1000 characters and match percentage keywords in the text. The content is of little interest to them.
2) The second way of presenting information about the Russian bath, which was mistakenly adopted, is even connected not so much with the time interval of the description of the baths, but with the one who describes the features of the Russian bath. Especially, over the past ten years, with the formation of guilds of stove manufacturers, consortiums manufacturing barrels and tubs with gangs for baths, associations of stove-makers and bath attendants, forums for Internet lovers to take a steam bath in verbal battles, an entire industry has developed, and a subculture promoting the Russian bath as an unusual way of relaxing and recovery. At the same time, the word “tradition” or “according to tradition” often comes into use. Foreign guests of the Russian Empire or Russia in different times did not consider the Russian bath as a tradition. They saw it as a way of washing and maintaining hygiene with the unusual use of steam and brooms. But those who went to the bathhouse treated it as an ordinary procedure for removing dirt from the body. For the very hygiene of a clean body in its classical form was inaccessible to the general population, no matter how beautifully we wrote about it, seasoning the texts with the aromas of herbs, hot stones and other bath paraphernalia.
3) And the third group of my impromptu classification of the description of the Russian bath is connected with the historical time interval in which we find information about the Russian bath. Most of the relevant texts come from the end of the 19th century (after 1870). These are descriptions of baths as architectural objects, as a history of non-standard interior items and baths. But to a lesser extent, they were described as institutions for healing, and even less so as places of worship with their own methods of washing and bath therapy. The baths found in the treatises of that time are, although public, but for the most part urban public.
It would be wrong not to talk about those baths that were described not in books, but in the notes of travelers and historians, whose eyes were directed to the people. After reading their notes, we begin to understand that the bath bath - strife! The gilded baths of the St. Petersburg baths and the black baths in the villages are the intersection of two worlds - two cultures of one people.
In most peasant households there were no baths at all! People bathed from spring to autumn in lakes and rivers, they went to the bath at best once every 2-3 months, or even less often - before big holidays- 2-3 times a year. And these are not empty words - this is the result of historical research on the life and living conditions of the population of Tsarist Russia in the pre-revolutionary period.
Russian bath - embellished a little, added a little
What do they say today? Today, the gurus of the bath business are dressed in embroidered shirts, hang amulets, icons and soar with a broom massage for a dime, putting the Russian bath on a commercial channel, turning whipping brooms into a strictly regulated training procedure. Not all, of course, but the market for such services is replete with the presence of “pros from steam”. Such a social realism of the era of nanotechnology. (Remember the Soviet films, where young collective farmers drove around the field in the dust in white dresses and with heels, and the men in chrome boots ran all the time next to the accordions?)
In order to somehow show the Russian bathhouse from the other side, and such, undoubtedly, is present - I will upload photos along the way. Here, for example, hard-working peasants at the log house (even very possibly - baths) are waiting for something in the evening. Certainly not stretching with a broom, stretching across, movements along the lymphatic flows and not opening the chakras, etc. They would just wash off the dirt in this black bath.
And, after all, these were the baths of the main population of Russia in the periods before the revolution and up to the war of 41 years. There was no Golden Ring then, but the outback lived on.
The current reenactors of the bath business of the last century create modern baths with interiors of a hundred years ago, sharpened by the appearance of a poor peasant's log cabin, in which the noble classes in white shirts with kvass and bagels were hovering at the samovar. That samovar, which was not in 70% of the families of post-revolutionary Russia.
Russian bath from time immemorial...!? What centuries?! Not earlier than in 1934-1936, baths were considered primarily as dual-use objects. And the main purpose is disinfection military points in case of war, ready to receive the infected and wounded, etc. Nobody hid this, and the names of the baths were given as to prison institutions - by numbers!
Home baths in the first half of the 19th century were rare and, oddly enough, appeared in women's rooms. educational institutions, prisons and military schools. Regardless of jurisdiction, they were classified as “home”.
In 1821, one of the baths of the Academy of Arts (architect A.A. Mikhailov) was located right in the drawing room, in which they also washed at the allotted time.
Baths designed by architect Zakharov (1809) were located in the brewery to provide centralized water supply.
Baths in Tsarskoye Selo by architect K.I. Rossi of 1850-1852 is one of the most famous in St. Petersburg, but despite this, due to the special interior, they were considered baths with a big stretch.
In 1815, there were 480 houses with bathrooms in the whole of St. Petersburg, which had nothing to do with what is now being popularized and elevated to the rank of tradition. These were oriental-style bathrooms. Access to them was for a very narrow circle of people of the upper class. 480 bathrooms in St. Petersburg!
And what do we have away from Peter? And on the outskirts was what is shown in the photo. Life of a peasant yard. What kind of bath with bagels are we talking about!? What kind of “from time immemorial” or “long since” can we talk about a bath in a white way?!!! Do these people look like those who take a steam bath at the samovar on Saturday?
But in the photo below - the life of workers living in the city from the factory. At best, they washed "in a bath" once a month, or even less often. Well, if the plant had its own baths. But that was rare.
With a samovar and bagels? On Saturdays? With kvass?
Somehow, against the background of these documentary photos, those baths that look at us from the Internet pages of hundreds of sites dedicated to the customs, traditions and rituals of the Russian bath do not appear. To say that they are all lies would be wrong. The first thing to do is to stop using the term “from time immemorial” relative to the bath, which we love.
Yes, there were baths, but few, not everywhere and not in this form.
The construction of a huge part of the baths falls on the second half of the 19th century - only one and a half hundred years ago. Massively this accounted for the urban small population. Public baths of that time were more like high-speed washing facilities than SPA salons with herb brooms. Bandwidth baths were supposed to be 350-400 people per hour. Usually, they could not cope with such a regime and queues of city workers and visitors lined up for the baths.
Departing from the topic of history, I just remember my childhood in the 70s, when the city bath in our city (two baths) with a population of 85-90 thousand worked in a constant queue mode 4 days a week.
The real revival of private baths began not so long ago - about 20-30 years ago, as soon as the "sunset" of communal property came and the era of entrepreneurship began. It was from that time that new baths began to include all the best that we know about the bath and, of course, they were designed not so much for washing and hygiene at great speed, but for getting pleasure, relaxation, unusualness and extravagance, sometimes healing (any hygienic procedure is a recovery). The inability to have your own private bath left a bad imprint on this "miracle with brooms." Wealthy people turned baths into an object of show, chic, a commercial attribute, and sometimes outright brothels.
Here they are - those who bathed in the baths, these are the people, and not a dozen peacocks in marble rooms. And the history of Russian baths is the history of the people, and not separate sketches of European architecture in major cities.
Thank God, there is a whole army of bathhouse enthusiasts who pulled it out of the “status-expressive baths” band and transferred it to the “health” group. Of course, like a hundred years ago, the Russian bath makes one marvel at the variety of forms of taking and soaring. The best and unique traditions of steam baths, which have surprised us so much and will continue to surprise us, have been revived. The main thing is not to distort history.
And what is the real Russian bath, the one that is folk? To be continued…
For some reason, many underestimate the civilization of the Russian people, believing that their entire history, upon closer examination, turns out to be a real chronicle of savagery and backwardness. How wrong they are, these skeptics! In fact, the Russian bath is perhaps the oldest, since its occurrence dates back to approximately the same period as the very birth of the Slavic tribe! There was also no writing as such, and we already see references to the bathhouse and its healing power in oral folk art. Indeed, in the bathing procedure, the two most powerful natural elements, fire and water, seem to merge together. The ancient Slavs, as you know, were pagans in their beliefs and worshiped a variety of gods. And the most "strong", therefore, the most revered were the god of the sun and fire and the goddess of rain and water. By combining these two forces during the bathing procedure, the ancient Slavs, as it were, attracted them to their side and thus took over part of their power.
The pagan holiday of Ivan Kupala, by the way, is also rooted in the depths of ancient Slavic beliefs. Jumping over the fire, our distant ancestors tried to "burn" evil and disease, cleanse their souls. And night swimming in a river or lake personified unity with mother nature and familiarization with her vitality. In almost all epics and tales, we can notice echoes of ancient beliefs in the healing and cleansing power of water. Our ancestors knew that health is associated with cleanliness. The legends about “dead” and “living” water that arose from such “vague guesses” tell us that pure “living” water has healing power. The bath was considered the custodian of "living" water and health, since it, as it were, strengthened and directed the vital energy of a person in the right direction.
The bath was first considered a symbol of overcoming all the evil that can surround a person in earthly life, and at a later time it became the personification of friendliness and home. In Russian fairy tales, Ivanushka demands that Baba Yaga first steam him in a bathhouse, feed him, give him drink and put him to bed, and then conduct inquiries. These notions of hospitality have been preserved in the villages up to the present day, and now the guest who knocks on the door will first of all be offered to take a steam bath, and then they will be offered a table and a bed.
The bath has always played such an important role in the life of a Russian person that in the ancient chronicles of the 10th-12th centuries, which tell about the customs of the “Russians”, we often find references to “soaps”. The baths were called "soaps", "movers", "movies", "vlaznys" and "moves". Even in an agreement with Byzantium (refers to 907), the Russians specifically stipulated that the Russian ambassadors who arrived in Constantinople would “create mov” whenever they wanted. Baths are mentioned both in the Tale of Bygone Years (945) and in the charter of the Kiev Caves Monastery (966). In those ancient times, the monks of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra were very knowledgeable in matters of medicine, since they had the opportunity to read the works of ancient Greek physicians, and it was Greek medicine that first drew attention to the benefits of a steam bath.
In an effort to verify the information received, the monks began to build baths and observe the healing effect that they produced on the sick and "suffering". When the healing properties of the baths were fully confirmed, they began to organize something like hospitals at the baths, and such baths were already called "institutions for the infirm." These were probably the very first clinics in Russia.
The Russian banya cannot be compared with either European or Asian baths. The Russian bath, unlike them, has a much stronger effect of its heat. An indispensable attribute of the Russian bath - a birch broom - whips overheated bodies with all its might. It seems that this is not a bath, but torture.
This is what foreigners who got into a real Russian bath thought at all times. In the steam room, under the blows of brooms, it seemed to them that "their death has come and is on the threshold." But after the sauna, foreigners noted that they feel great. Amazing, thrills associated with the Russian bath, remain forever in the memory of strangers. The fame of the Russian bath-healer has spread throughout the world.
In many foreign books of antiquity and our days, travelers share their impressions of Russia. Is it possible to understand the Russian character without having been in a Russian bath?
Russian baths with their healing power won the love of many people outside our country. Fans of Russian baths build them both in France and in America. Once in Canada, our compatriot can take his soul to the Sandunovsky baths. They were built in the style of the Sandunovsky baths in Moscow. The attractive power and healing ability of Russian baths are generally recognized.
In one of the ancient Arabic manuscripts, the memory of a traveler who visited Russia and took a steam bath was preserved. From this source it became known how our ancestors arranged baths: “... They built wooden house, small in size. It had only one small window, which was located closer to the ceiling. All the cracks between the logs were caulked with tree resin mixed with forest moss. In one of the corners of the hut there is a fiery hearth lined with stones. Also in the bath there was a large barrel of water. When the hearth flares up, the stones are sprinkled with water, and the door and window are clogged.
The Russian bath struck the imagination of foreigners who were accustomed to baths with warm water. Therefore, the Russians, who, after a scalding bathhouse, dived into the hole, were seen by strangers as heroes.
The device of the baths did not undergo any changes for a long time, it has remained so to this day. The idea remains the same, but its implementation has changed.
Initially, the baths were a small wooden hut, cut down from solid logs. They tried to put bathhouses near water bodies so as not to experience difficulties with water. The internal structure of the bath is as follows: about a third of the entire room is occupied by a stove-heater. A fire is kindled below, which heats the stones laid on top, and also heats the bathhouse. When the stones are hot, the fire is extinguished, the pipe is closed with a damper and steamed, pouring water on the stones to form steam. Soar, climbing on the shelves (emphasis on the second syllable), which are something like a ladder with four or five wide steps. The higher a person climbs onto the shelves, the hotter and “more vigorous” the steam. On the last shelf, almost under the ceiling, only the most hardy and strong bathers risk taking a steam bath, who do not care about 100-degree heat.
This is the so-called white bath. At first it was built only from logs, but then brick baths appeared. We find the first mention of a brick bath in the annals of 1090, and it was built in the city of Pereyaslavl.
Black bath
If there is a white bath, then, of course, there must be a black bath, as attentive readers will say - and they will be absolutely right! There was a bath. At first, even before the appearance of white baths, the Russian people for centuries drowned bathhouses in black. Now there are few real experts on such a bath, but this idea does not fade away. A fairly widespread misconception is that steaming in black means suffocating from soot and burning in a small room near an open stove. Among those who think so, there is not a single person who has experienced firsthand what a black bath is.
There is no need to be afraid that steaming in black will soon stop altogether. Throughout Russia there are many places where the preference is given to the original Russian tradition. Baths in the villages of the Middle Urals, Western Siberia and other places were built in accordance with the precepts of ancestors who knew a lot about a real bath. They say: "The black bath will wash white."
So what is the difference between a black bath and a white one? Only in the method of space heating. After all, the house itself (both for a white and a black bath) was built in the same way and was very small. It had only two small rooms with rather low ceilings. The height of the ceiling corresponded to the height of an adult man. The small size of the bath allowed it to be heated properly. The main difference between the bath, which is heated in a black way, from all the others is the absence of a chimney.
The door to the bath was made very strong, without cracks. In order for it to close tightly and prevent a draft from walking, a wooden step was made in front of the door. The first room of this house-bath is called the dressing room. It was equipped with maximum comfort. There was a bench and a clothes hanger in the dressing room.
The dressing room is much smaller in size than the bath itself, from which it was separated by a thin wooden partition. Such a partition was preferred to be made of linden or pine. A door was made in the partition, which closed tightly, thereby preventing the penetration of smoke and steam into the dressing room.
In one of the corners of the bath there was a furnace, on which lay large round boulders. Next to the stove was a tub with a large supply of water. There was one small window in the bath, and it was located above the stove. Thus, the bathhouse could be ventilated as needed.
As already mentioned, the stove in the black bath was without a chimney, so the smoke and soot came directly into the steam room. Naturally, after the first attempt to heat the bathhouse in this way, the walls and ceiling of the steam room became sooty, and this soot was completely unremovable. It was for this black color of the walls and ceiling that the bath began to be called black.
After the bath is heated, all windows and doors are opened so that the smoke comes out and the air in the steam room becomes fresher. Of course, no one began to bathe until all the smoke was gone, otherwise one could easily burn out in such a bath. After airing the bathhouse, it must be prepared so that you can bathe in it. To do this, the bath is “steamed”: a special scraper is carried out along the walls, the excess soot is washed off, dousing the walls hot water from the gang, and only after these manipulations they "give steam" by splashing water on the heater. This is the way to bathe and got the name "black". It is the most ancient and originates, figuratively speaking, in the Russian oven.
After all, long before the baths appeared, the Russians steamed in stoves. How did it happen? Quite uncomplicated, but nevertheless very witty. The absolutely remarkable property of the Russian stove was used to keep heat long after food was cooked or bread was baked. Having removed soot and ash from the furnace, they tried to wash the walls, lay straw on the pallet, put a tub of water there and put a broom. Then help was needed: the one who steamed first sat on a shovel or even on an ordinary board, and the assistant carefully pushed him into the vent. The stove damper closed tightly, and the person began to steam. Sprinkling water on the walls of the oven, they got an absolutely wonderful fragrant steam with the smell of freshly baked bread.
When the steamer wanted to get out of the stove, he knocked on the shutter, and he was taken out of the stove in the same way as he was placed there. In general, this process was very reminiscent of baking bread: like a loaf, they “put” a person in the oven, and when he was “browned” from the heat, they quickly took them out. Having steamed up, the man poured himself cold water, and if there was a river nearby, then he ran and plunged into the river. Most likely, bathing with hot water was not very common, much more often they simply steamed, alternating this with cold douches.
But the head was washed very strangely (in modern view). Wood ash was first used to wash hair! Or rather, not the ash itself, but the so-called lye, which was made from the ash. Only then did they begin to wash their hair with an egg, it is this ancient method that has survived to this day. And now, many beauties, wanting to give beauty and shine to their hair, wash them with an egg in the old fashioned way. Is this not the best confirmation of the wisdom of our ancestors, when a modern person deliberately refuses fashionable patented cosmetics, preferring to them folk remedies, tested for centuries!
If we want to trace the whole "path" of the development of the Russian bath, then it will be like this: first - a Russian stove, in which they could take a steam bath after cooking and baking bread. Then the cramped stove mouth "expanded" to the size of a dugout, which was heated in black. Kamenka as such has not yet appeared, instead of it in the center of the dugout a pile of stones was piled up, on which water was splashed. The smoke came out not only through the inlet of the dugout, but also through the cracks in the roof. Then the cramped and low dugout “grew up”, becoming small house half dug into the ground. Such black baths were heated by stoves and they already had a separate heater and several regiments. And only after that, the Russians began to equip their black baths with chimneys so that the smoke would not accumulate in the steam room, but would go outside. This is how white baths appeared - first wooden, and then stone.
But with the advent of the white bath, the black bath did not give up its positions - they began to exist simultaneously. To this day, in many villages you can find baths that are heated both in white and in black. The Russians have always been very democratic and therefore tried to take into account the interests of all the inhabitants of a village, village or city, building baths of two types. After all, there are still people who like the bath, heated in black, much more. They argue that the steam in a black bath is more fragrant and useful than in a white one, because only in a bath heated in the old way, a special, some ancient feeling of home comfort and warmth is preserved.
Probably, it was these feelings experienced by the primitive hunters who returned from the hunt: all the hardships are behind and finally you can relax and unwind, enjoying peace. And modern man, whom civilization has saved from the harsh need to fight wild animals and the elements for his existence, sometimes just needs to feel like an ancient hunter and warrior capable of hard physical labor. After all, to be honest, our male contemporaries have become more pampered compared to their courageous ancestors. And the black bath with its primitive sensations, apparently, awakens in them some kind of generic, genetic memory, which, as it were, returns them to those harsh times. And it's so great! Having briefly felt like a warrior, a man tries to keep this feeling in himself: when he knows that a lot depends on his courage and determination, he behaves in a completely different way. He really becomes more courageous, some special calm dignity appears in him, that brutality that is gradually lost in our refined, civilized society. That's for sure. Proven in practice!
In fact, this, of course, is not a scientific theory - about genetic memory, which is “wakened up” by a hot Russian bathhouse, melted in a black way. But something is really happening with them (with men, in a sense), because they come out of the Russian bath in some other way! If you want to check it out, go to some remote village where the old black bathhouse is still preserved. It is guaranteed that your civilized companion, whose most "bloodthirsty" act was butchering the meat fillet you bought in the supermarket, after visiting the black bath, will express an ardent desire to go hunting. You will simply be amazed to the core by the changes that have taken place. And besides, after such a bath, something happens to the body: it becomes more obedient, flexibility and grace appear almost animalistic, and the whole body becomes ten years younger! Marvelous! And doctors have found a scientific explanation for the "life-giving" properties of the black bath: it turns out that the smoke contains special antiseptic substances that destroy pathogenic bacteria and microbes. That is why the black bath is so useful.
Of course, now not everyone has such an opportunity - to experience the effect of the black bath, and not everyone can withstand it. What a sin to hide, out of habit in a black bath and get burned for a short time, especially if a person has never bathed at all before! But anyone can bathe in a white bath: it is both pleasant and no less useful.
The primordial Russian white bath from the outside looked unattractive. The wooden hut stood half rooted into the ground. This prevented the winds from blowing through the bath, thereby quickly cooling it. In addition, such a “mundane” location of the bath was very convenient for the correct placement of the stove and chimney. In contrast to the black bath, a chimney rose above this one.
The bathhouse was divided into two parts. The dressing room (smaller part) was traditionally arranged simply, but taking into account the needs. The bathhouse itself, or steam room, occupied most of the space. Its main attraction was a stove with a chimney.
The stove - the heart of the bath - had several levels. The lowest level was a small recess - a blower. Above it was a stove. Chimneys stretched from the oven in the wall. And on the stove was a layer of stones. A tub of water next to the stove made it possible to add steam as needed. This design of the furnace provided good "draught" during combustion, as well as ventilation for the bath room.
Very often, for this reason, the steam rooms in the white bath were without windows. The air in such a bath is always saturated with oxygen. It is no less hot than in a bath, which is heated in a black way, but not so burning and tart. In a white bath, combustion products are practically not felt in the air, and only the aromas of wood, a broom and medicinal decoctions dominate.
There is no doubt that without a bath, which is heated in a white way, those who experience breathing difficulties due to any illness cannot do without it. Pure fragrant steam of such a bath has a cleansing effect on the lungs. Breathing in an aromatic bath is like inhalation. Such baths became the prototypes of modern baths, which inherited their healing power from traditional Russian baths.
For the first time, the Russian bath is mentioned in The Tale of Bygone Years. This is the 10th century. But some historians believe that the banya appeared in Russia much earlier, in the 5th-6th centuries.
Since ancient times, it was considered a sacred place where four elements simultaneously dominate: water, fire, earth and air. They cleanse a person not only physically, but also spiritually.
The Russian banya is fundamentally different from European and Asian ones - a high heat temperature and such an integral attribute as a birch broom. The Russian bathing ritual shocked visiting foreigners, who called the ongoing action torture and self-torture.
When the British came to Russia through the North, they noted that these barbarians stoked the huts "in a black way", then bathed in them with their families, torturing each other with twigs, and then rushed into a river or pond with a whoop.
The first Russian baths were vlazni in a black way. The oven was without a chimney. Smoke and soot came directly into the steam room. The walls and ceiling instantly became smoky, black - which gave the name to such baths.
Steamed in them only after they are well ventilated. All windows and doors were opened to let the smoke out. Later they began to install stoves with a chimney. And such baths were called white. Steamed in Russia and in ordinary home ovens. They had spacious mouths - almost one and a half meters deep and about half a meter high. After cooking, the ashes were removed from the warm oven, the soot was washed off, and the straw was laid. They put a tub of hot water to spray the roof of the stove, climbed inside, lay down and steamed.
In Russia, everyone used the banya: both princes, and noble people, and ordinary people.
Not a single celebration was complete without a bath. So, after the birth of a child, this event had to be “washed” in a bathhouse. The wedding ceremony could not do without it. On the eve of the wedding, the bride and her friends went to the bathhouse. Accordingly, the groom and his friends visited the steam room. The next day after the wedding, the newlyweds also went to the bathhouse. Upon leaving it, the matchmaker met them and treated them to fried poultry and "bannik" - bread, with which the mother of the bride blessed the young for the crown.
Foreigners were struck by the fact that Russians prefer the banya as a place of communication. As Yakov Reitenfels, a native of Courland, wrote, "Russians consider it impossible to conclude friendship without inviting them to a bath and then eating at the same table."
Almost every house in Russia had its own bathhouse, which was heated once a week. Saturday was considered a bathing day. Even government offices did not work. The construction of baths was allowed to anyone who had enough land. A decree of 1649 ordered that 'soap houses be built in vegetable gardens and in hollow places not close to the mansion' in order to avoid fires. In home baths, the whole family washed.
Olearius (German scientist 1603-1671), who made a trip to Muscovy and Persia in 1633-1639, wrote that "Russians can endure intense heat, from which they become all red and exhausted to the point that they are no longer able to stay in the bath, they run out naked into the street, both men and women, and douse themselves with cold water, but in winter, having run out of the bath into the yard, they wallow in the snow, rub their body with it, as if with soap, and then go back to the bath" .
However, the nobles and rich people preferred not home, but large public baths, where people of all ages and sex also steamed and washed together. Many "enlighteners" and "moralists" of that time called the common baths the main center of debauchery. Although in Europe at that time the joint washing of men and women was common.
But the freedom of morals and relations that reigned in Russian baths surprised foreigners. In their opinion, the Russians were completely devoid of false modesty, inherent - as they said - to every civilized (that is, European) person. Families with small children came to the baths. Here, in the common room, walking girls, called rubbing women, worked. For wealthy clients of all classes, there were specially separate rooms and nooks and crannies.
Only after the Decree of Catherine the Great, joint "washing" was prohibited. In 1743, the baths were divided into women's and men's. To XIX century expensive, richly furnished bathhouses with good service and excellent buffets appeared in large cities.
But the most famous and luxurious were the Sandunovsky baths in Moscow. The whole color of the Russian nobility visited this bathing palace and where foreigners began to go with pleasure.
In 1992, Sanduny was declared an architectural monument and taken under state protection. Russian steam baths did not take root abroad. But sometimes in Europe you can see a sign with the name of the place bearing the word banya.
I really love the bath! I've always been interested in her story, but how did she get there? How did people wash before, how do they wash in other countries? Of course, the bathhouse as we know it did not appear immediately.
There is no doubt that the history of the bath among different nations is similar to the Brazilian TV series. There were stunning take-offs of bath traditions. As well as complete decline and collapse ...
And it all started with…
People always bathed, but as soon as they learned how to make fire, learned about the properties of water, stones, then the first steps were taken towards the invention of baths. At the same time, different peoples have their own traditions of building baths, their own rules and their own history.
Among the nomadic peoples of antiquity, baths are very similar to yurts. Long sticks were tied at the top with ropes, distributed obliquely. The whole structure was covered with animal skins. Inside, in the middle they put a cauldron with water and herbs.
Outside, on a fire, stones were heated and thrown into the cauldron. For nomadic peoples, such a collapsible design of baths was very suitable, so they could transport it to any distance. Agree, the device and the principle of heating is very similar to a modern camping bath.
Bath at nomadic peoples
We learn the history of the bath from ancient times from archaeologists. For all peoples, the bath served to cleanse the body, was a hospital. Under the influence of hot, humid air, the bodies were massaged, with different force they pressed on the softened muscles. Healing properties the pair were used by the first people. The desire to thoroughly warm all the bones is very characteristic of a person.
How to wash in ancient Egypt
Thanks to excavations, it became known about the difficult baths in ancient Egypt. There were huge stones on the top floor, and they were heated from the bottom floor. These giants had a hole through which steam came from below.
People lay down on these boulders, and the bath workers rubbed them with ointments and massaged them. Everything was provided here: a swimming pool, a room for gymnastics, even a medical room. The Egyptians were very practical, the overflow of the bath was used for the central heating of the city.
On ancient papyri and drawings you will not see a complete Egyptian. They were slender and thin, and bath procedures helped them in this. The use of aromatic oils and massage in the bath kept them away from old age.
Such is the rich history of bathing in ancient Egypt.
History of Greek and Roman Baths
But the Greek bath was available to both the rich and the poor. First of all, she played the role of a hospital. And it didn’t look like the baths of ancient Egypt at all. The buildings were round. They heated up the open hearth. There were baths and a pool inside.
There was no drain, so the water had to be scooped out of the baths. The campaign of Alexander the Great in Egypt brought drastic changes to bathing life. They began to build baths with hot floors, the same as those of the Egyptians.
Bath in ancient Greece
The bathing life of the Romans was related to historical art. It was a place for conversations, conversations, poetry readings, even singing. No funds were spared for the construction of the baths.
There were sculptures and fountains, marble columns. Bath equipment and utensils were made of silver and gold. The baths of the Romans were both public and private. But after the fall of the Roman Empire, the bathing culture was also forgotten. All splendor was destroyed and abandoned.
Bath in ancient Rome
But there is no evil without good. The Roman Empire fell, the culture of Rome disappeared. But, this is the beginning of the flourishing of Islamic culture. The history of the oriental bath begins - the hammam, which continues to this day. All visitors, without exception, the host met as dear guests. The Eastern bath was visited as often as the mosque. Until now, five basic principles of the oriental bath have been preserved. Warming up the body, massage, cleansing the skin with a mitt, lathering and dousing with water and the last - relaxation.
Eastern baths
But the fall of the Roman Empire and the spread of Christianity in Western Europe brought complete destruction to the baths. The influence of the church was very great in those ancient times. And the church considered the bathhouse a sinful institution, because public baths were a common place for love dates.
The impact of water on the body was considered direct harm to the body. Obscurantism killed not only knowledge about hygiene, but also completely deprived people of the concept of disgust. Cleanliness was viewed with disgust. Lice were considered a sign of holiness, they were called "God's pearls." It's scary to imagine, but ladies bathed 2-3 times a year.
Bath in ancient EuropeNot with a simple plague mowed down half of the Old World. Epidemics of cholera, syphilis, and smallpox were commonplace. But even after the recognition of the bath in Europe, it has long been considered a place of perverse pleasures.
Of course, the very essence of the bath, the attitude to bath procedures, appearance, methods of heating bath rooms, and the attitude of people, in principle, could not be the same for all peoples. After all, each nation is so distinctive. Everyone has their own history, their own religion, their own traditions. Let's not forget the various natural and climatic conditions of life.
Japanese baths
Therefore, speaking of the Japanese bath, we will see how different it is from everyone else. The Japanese honor and honor the laws of their religion, and she is against the killing of animals. Soap is made from animal fat. Therefore, the Japanese bathed without soap, but with very hot water.
There were also prohibitions in Japanese baths. At skin diseases, mental deviations, it was forbidden to visit the bathhouse. In addition, in the Japanese bath they did not drink, did not eat, kept silence, did not have sex and did not relieve themselves of small need.
Bath in Japan
Russian bath
Now it's time for a story about our Russian bath. I am sure that it is synonymous with the Russian soul. We cannot be imagined without it, it accompanies us all our lives.
Our bath is fundamentally different and different from all known baths. We, like many others, have private and public baths. The difference is that they are radically different from each other.
Not a single nation in the world has heated and does not heat a bathhouse in a black way. And private Russian baths were heated only in black. The fact that there are many baths is undeniable, but only Russians have bath brooms.
Bath in Russia
Our black bath is a separate topic of conversation, a long and interesting conversation. I will try to tell my story of a black bath in the next article, since I myself went to such a bath all my childhood.
Favorite tradition of every Russian
Russian bath in black
The bath has always been and is for a Russian person not just a place where you can take hygiene procedures and cleanse your body of pollution, but a special, almost sacred structure, where cleansing takes place not only on a physical, but also on a spiritual level. After all, it is not for nothing that those who visited the bathhouse, describing their own feelings, say:
How he was born again into the world, rejuvenated by 10 years and cleansed his body and soul.
The concept of the Russian bath, the history of appearance
The Russian bath is a specially equipped room, which is designed for taking water hygiene and thermal procedures in order to prevent and improve the whole body.
Today it is difficult to judge what prompted ancient man on the idea of creating a bath. Perhaps these were random drops that fell on a red-hot domestic hearth and created small puffs of steam. Perhaps this discovery was made intentionally, and the person immediately appreciated the power of steam. But the fact that the culture of steam baths has been known to mankind for a very long time is confirmed by numerous archaeological excavations and written sources.
So, according to the ancient Greek historian-chronicler Herodotus The first bath appeared in the era of tribal communities. And having visited in the 5th century. BC. the territory of the tribes that inhabited the Northern Black Sea region, he described in detail the bathhouse, which resembled a hut-hut, with a vat installed in it, where they threw red-hot stones.
Unwashed Europe and clean Russia
Already later sources indicate that the bath culture existed in Ancient Rome, whose rulers spread it to the conquered territories of Western Europe. However, after the fall of the Roman Empire in Western Europe, both the bath and the ablution as such were forgotten. A ban was established on bathing culture, which was explained, among other things, by wholesale deforestation, and, as a result, a lack of firewood. After all, in order to build a solid bath and heat it well, you need to cut down a lot of trees. A certain role was played by medieval Catholic ethics, which taught that the exposure of the body, even for washing, is a sinful act.
The fall in hygienic requirements led to the fact that for many centuries Europe was mired not only in its own sewage, but also in diseases. Monstrous epidemics of cholera and plague only for the period from 1347 to 1350. claimed the lives of more than 25,000,000 Europeans!
Bath culture in Western European countries was completely forgotten, as evidenced by numerous written sources. So, according to the recognition of the Queen of Spain, Isabella of Castile, she washed herself only twice in her life: when she was born and when she got married. No less sad fate befell the King of Spain, Philip II, who died in terrible agony, consumed by scabies and gout. Scabies completely tortured and brought Pope Clement VII to the grave, while his predecessor Clement V died of dysentery, which he contracted because he never washed his hands. It is no coincidence, by the way, already in the 19th and 20th centuries, dysentery began to be called the "disease of dirty hands".
Around the same period, Russian ambassadors regularly reported to Moscow that the king of France stinks unbearably, and one of the French princesses was simply eaten lice, which the Catholic Church called God's pearls, thereby justifying its senseless ban on baths and the culture of accepting elementary hygiene procedures.
No less curious and at the same time repulsive are the archaeological finds. medieval Europe that can be seen today in museums around the world. Eloquently testifying to the widespread dirt, stench and uncleanliness, exhibits are on display for visitors - combs, flea traps and saucers for crushing fleas, which were placed directly on the dining table.
Flea catcher - devices for catching and neutralizing fleas; in the old days an essential element of the wardrobe
Today, it is already proven that French perfumers invented perfumes not to smell better, but to simply hide the smell of a body unwashed for years under the fragrance of floral aromas.
And it remains only to sympathize with the daughter of the Grand Duke Yaroslav the Wise, - Anna, which, after marriage to the French king Henry I wrote to the father at home, they say:
Why did I anger you so much, and why do you hate me so much that you sent me to this dirty France, where I really can’t even wash my face?!
But what about in Russia?
And in Russia, the bath has always existed, at least according to the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea who are still in the 500s. wrote that the culture of ablution accompanies the ancient Slavs throughout their lives.
According to ancient descriptions, the bath was a log building with a hearth, on the hot coals of which water was poured from time to time, which turned into steam. According to folk beliefs, the keeper of the bathhouse and its soul is a bathhouse - an absolutely naked old man, whose body is covered with leaves from a broom. Bannik was supposed to be appeased from time to time, treating him with bread and salt, which once again emphasizes the respectful attitude of the Slavs to the bath itself and its “essence”, which they literally idolized.
Having appeared on the territory of Russia back in the days of paganism, when people worshiped the cult of fire and water, both the bathhouse and the hearth were deeply revered by the Slavs, which is noted in their works by researchers of Russian life I. Zabelin and A. Afanasiev. The bath was not just a place where you could cleanse your body of dirt and take hygiene procedures, but also a kind of medical institution where people of the ancient medical specialty could put any sick person on their feet.
In turn, the chronicles of the X-XIII centuries. point to the widespread distribution of the bath among the Eastern Slavs, starting from the 5th-6th centuries, when it was affectionately called movnitsa, mov, soap and vlaznya. And even with the baptism of Russia, when the church began an active fight against folk healers and all sorts of superstitions, the bathhouse did not cease to exist, but only strengthened its influence, as it became a place for obligatory visits before performing the most important church rituals - baptism, weddings, communion and other .
“Heat me a bathhouse in white!”
The bath in white, as V. Vysotsky sings about in his song, appeared in Russia much later than the bath in black, gradually replacing the latter. At first, the Slavs built baths without a chimney, in a black way, and a periodically opening door was used as natural ventilation. In a black sauna, smoke does not go into the chimney, but into the sauna room itself, from where it exits through open door, as well as through a special hole in the ceiling or wall (the so-called "pipe"). After the firebox is finished and the coals are completely burned out, the door closes, the pipe is stopped up, and the shelves, benches and floor are washed with plenty of water from soot and the bath is kept for about 15 minutes before use, so that it dries and gains heat. Then the remains of the coals are raked out, and the first steam is released so that it takes the soot from the stones with it. After that, you can steam. A black bath is more difficult to heat and cannot be heated during washing (like a white bath), but due to the fact that the smoke eats up all the old smells, the black bath has its own charm, unattainable in a white bath.
Later, they began to build baths in white, where a stove-heater with a chimney acted as a source of heat and steam.
In addition, at that time there was another interesting and unusual way to steam right in the Russian stove. To do this, it was carefully heated, and the bottom was covered with straw. Then a person climbed inside the oven, taking with him water, beer or kvass, with which he poured over the red-hot walls of the hearth and took a steam bath, after which he went out and doused himself with cold water. Even the weak and old did not deny themselves such an unusual pleasure, who were simply pushed into the oven on a special board, and then a healthy person got in to wash and steam the weak, as expected.
Bath for a Russian is more than love!
Bath accompanied every Russian person from birth to death. In no other culture of the world did she become as widespread as in Russia, where her visit was elevated to an obligatory cult and had to take place regularly.
Not a single celebration could do without it, and, meeting even a random guest, the owner first of all offered him to visit the bathhouse, and then taste the treat and spend the night. It is no coincidence that in Russian fairy tales, in addition to shelter and dinner, travelers are always offered a bathhouse.
Bachelorette and bachelor parties, as they would say today, necessarily ended with a visit to the bathhouse, and the young themselves, having become spouses, were obliged to take it regularly, each time after marital intimacy, if they went to church the next morning. It was supposed to go to the bath with almost any ailment, especially if it was a cold, runny nose, cough and joint diseases.
The therapeutic effect of this simple and pleasant procedure is comparable to the strongest effect on the entire human body. When every cell of the body receives an unimaginable charge of energy, forcing it to work in a new way, thereby restarting the natural processes of regeneration and self-renewal. And alternation high temperatures with the cold, when, after visiting the bath, it is customary to jump into the snow, an ice hole, into a river, or simply douse yourself with ice water - this is the most The best way hardening and strengthening immunity.
As for the special love of Russians for the bath, it has found its embodiment not only in folklore, but also reflected in historical documents. So, the Russian historian and researcher of the customs and life of the Russian people N.I. Kostomarov repeatedly notes in his works that people went to the bathhouse very often in order to wash, heal and just for fun. According to him, for a Russian person, visiting a bath is a natural need and a kind of rite, which neither adults, nor children, nor the rich, nor the poor can violate.
In turn, foreigners who visited Russia were surprised to note the habit of the Russian people very often and for a long time to wash, which they did not meet either in their homeland or in other countries. In fact, as a rule, they bathed once a week, on Saturdays. But for foreigners who almost never bathed, it seemed "very often." So, for example, the German traveler Adam Olearius once wrote that in Russia it is impossible to find a single city or even a poor village where there would be no bathhouse. They are here just at every step, and they are visited at every opportunity, especially during periods of illness. And as if summarizing, in his writings he noted that, perhaps, such a love for the bath is not devoid of practical meaning, and the Russian people themselves are so strong in spirit and healthy.
As for Europe, for the revival of the custom of bathing and washing regularly, she should be grateful to Peter I and the Russian soldiers, who, terrifying the same French and Dutch, steamed in a hastily built bathhouse, and then jumped into ice water despite the cold outside. And the order given in 1718 by Peter I to build a bathhouse on the banks of the Seine completely horrified the Parisians, and the construction process itself gathered onlookers from all over Paris.
Instead of a conclusion
According to many researchers of the culture and life of the Russian people, the secret of the Russian bath is simple: it cleanses and heals at the same time. And the architectural solution of the building itself is uncomplicated and is an ordinary room with a stove-heater, which allows a person of any income and position to have it.
As for the special love for the bath and the popularity of the bath ritual throughout history, this once again emphasizes the desire of every Russian person for cleanliness, neatness, health, clarity of thought and decency. The bathing tradition, despite the fact that outwardly remains an everyday phenomenon, is an important element of culture, which is reverently preserved, passed down from generation to generation, and remains an important sign of belonging to the Russian people. Thus, as long as the Russian people exist, so long will the banya exist.