Must Sauna

A visit to Finland without a sauna bath is hardly a visit according to sauna afficionados. A sauna can be easily arranged because every Finnish country cottage, almost without exception, has its own sauna.

In the cities the National Board of Housing stipulates that houses built with the aid of a state loan must have a sauna. Most resorts and hotels have beautiful saunas complete with elaborate spas. One of the most luxurious can be found at Hotel Hesperia (Mannerheimintie 50, phone 43101).

According to statistics, there are over 700 000 private saunas and 300 000 in hotels and health clubs or in factories, hospitals and other institutions for a population of only 5 million. Most of these saunas are the modern electrical kind, but you can still experience the original smoke saunas at Helsinki's Georgsgatan 21 (that is worth the visit for the fin de siecle architecture of the pool hall alone, phone 60981) and at Kotiharju (Harjotinkatu 1, phone 799077).

If you want to experience the ultimate in traditional saunas, you take the bus out to Drumsö where the Finnish Sauna Association (phone 678677) has its beautiful sauna resort. The organization was started in 1937 and has about 2 000 members who come here regularly but visitors are welcome. In the cafe you will find thank you notes from such satisfied visitors as Prince Philip and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. You may run into singer Arja Sarjomaa in the ladies division or president Marti Ahtisaari in the men's. The saunas are open all year round and many of the diehards jump into the water after a session in the sauna even in the middle of winter. There are few experiences that leave you feeling so good afterwards, so you can understand why the sauna has been attributed almost mythical qualities in Finland. The rural smoke sauna was not only where washing and bathing was done. It was here you relaxed with a beer after a hard day's work. The laundry was done here, meat cured and beer fermented. It was here you carved out your furniture, waxed your skis and had a bit of privacy. Many people over 50 today were actually born in saunas. The sick were treated in saunas and there is still a saying in Finland: "if the sauna, schnapps and tar don't help, the illness is fatal".

Scandinavian Press, issue 4, 1995