Steamy, spiritual and stress-busting, there are more than 3m saunas in Finland. Not only are they skin tingling, they help people explore what it is to be human
‘They are a place where everyone is equal and stripped of status’ … Rauhaniemi, a sauna in Tampere, Finland. Photograph: Heidi Holma
While some saunas have rules governing topics of conversation – discouraging, for example, discussion of politics, business and religion – at Rajaportti, everything goes. “You have left wing, you have right wing, you have punks, you have architects, you have artists; everyone sits up there. And they talk, and they drink. And of course it gets heated sometimes,” says Lembke. “This is how it should be.
Across town, the light is already starting to fade as we reach Rauhaniemi folk spa, where a line of bodies progresses unflinchingly from the sauna into the 3C water of the neighbouring lake. It looks unimaginable at first, but once I have been in and out of the sauna, following them seems like the natural thing to do – until I’m submerged and struggling not to shriek. Afterwards, though, I feel euphoric and ready to do it all again.
Finland’s sauna tradition is believed to go back to the first settlements after the ice age, when people are thought to have dug holes in the ground and covered them with animal skins. During the iron age, saunas are understood to have been built from logs, resulting in a chimneyless smoke sauna that remained popular until the 1930s, after which continuously heated saunas, followed by electric saunas, started to gain traction.
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