The history of sauna in Helsinki
From ancient tradition to modern urban culture
Sauna is an authentic part of everyday life in Helsinki. Enjoying a good hot löyly, the steam that rises when water is ladled over the rocks of the sauna stove, is a way to relax, tap into tradition, and socialise with friends. And well before the newest public sauna boom started in the 2010s, there’s a fascinating sauna history in Helsinki stretching back to the 1800s.
The awesome history of Helsinki’s public saunas
Helsinki may be the capital of modern urban sauna culture, but Finland’s love affair with steam goes way back—saunas have been a part of Finnish life for over 10,000 years. The first saunas during the Middle Ages were pits in the ground, filled with heated stones and used for warmth during the cold winter months. It wasn’t until the 500s that above-ground saunas appeared.
While the sauna has always been connected to mythology (more about that later) in Finland, above all it has played an important practical role as a place to cleanse oneself.
When Helsinki was a young town of wooden houses, sauna buildings could be found in many yards. With industrialisation, as the local population began to grow, space began to run out. As a result, not all working-class people had a sauna in their own backyards.
At the turn of the 20th century, bathrooms and hot water were not common, so additional public saunas were built so people could wash. They were often very basic saunas, with only the essentials needed to bathe: sauna, steam, shower, water and soap.
“These were inexpensive saunas where locals could wash at the end of the working day or week,” says Ida Suolahti, Senior Researcher at the City of Helsinki.
The sauna was just about the only place where you could just be. The sauna was a washing, relaxing, and wellbeing centre. People would also go to the sauna for cupping and massages.
-Ida
Senior Researcher at the City of Helsinki
Cupping is an ancient healing therapy (link to article about sauna’s health benefits to follow) in which suction cups are placed over cuts on the skin to remove what was believed to be bad or unhealthy blood. And a massage after a hot sauna session helps to further relieve muscle tension and aid relaxation.
Illuminating the past
Electricity, or rather electric lighting, has had a very interesting impact on sauna culture.
In the 1800s and early 1900s, it was common for men and women to sauna together. One reason was that saunas were commonly dark. The arrival of electric lighting transformed the sauna experience, making it much lighter
-Ida
Senior Researcher at the City of Helsinki
After that, women and men began bathing separately in public saunas.
The golden age of public saunas coincided with Finland’s biggest housing crisis: after the Second World War in the late 1940s.
In the 1950s and 1960s, suburbs were built with apartments that had their own bathrooms. Public swimming pools with saunas were built and many suburban apartment buildings had a shared electric-heated sauna that could be used by residents. In more recent years, apartments with their own private saunas have become more common. Today, there’s more than 3 million saunas in Finland (population 5.6 million people), which means the whole country could enjoy a sauna together at the same time.
Later, as the demand for public saunas decreased, they fell out of fashion. In fact, once upon a time, visiting a public sauna could be a sign that you could not afford your own bathroom or did not have access to a sauna.
Helsinki public sauna revival: together is better
Fast forward to the 2010s, when several major public sauna openings in Helsinki brought a new type of social sauna culture to the capital. Design sauna complexes such as Kulttuurisauna, Löyly Helsinki, Allas Pool, and Lonna Sauna introduced a modern take on social sauna-ing with architecturally significant and stylish modern spaces where it was possible to sauna, swim, drink, and even dine in some cases.
While Kulttuurisauna is a quieter space for sauna-goers (they don’t admit larger groups), Löyly Helsinki and Allas Pool have larger capacity and multiple saunas, along with on-site bars, cafés and restaurants and a lively roster of events.
“We wanted to revive the public sauna culture,” says Jasper Pääkkönen, owner and co-founder of Löyly Helsinki, which opened in 2016.
A long time ago, Helsinki used to have over 100 public saunas – they were peoples’ communal bathing and meeting spots. We wanted people to experience a real Finnish sauna – wood-heated with direct access to the sea year-round
-Jasper
Co-founder of Löyly Helsinki
With the rise of public saunas as meeting places and social spaces, there’s also a newfound appreciation for neighbourhood saunas such as the classic Kotiharjun Sauna, operating since 1928, and Sauna Hermanni, a time capsule from the ’50s, and newer ones such as Uusi Sauna (‘New Sauna’), which in addition to saunas has a bar and restaurant with capacity for up to 100 people in the Jätkäsaari neighbourhood.
All draw on Helsinki’s rich sauna history by bringing people together for a quintessentially Finnish experience that’s good for mind, body and soul. Find your own favourite sauna (link to sauna database to follow) by stepping into the past—visit Kotiharjun Sauna and feel 1928 in the steam—or into the future: watch this space for new Helsinki sauna openings.
