Banya in Russian can refer to any kind of steam bath, but usually to the Russian type of sauna.
The earliest description of the banya comes from the Russian Primary
Chronicle of 1113. According to the Chronicle, or as it was called by
its authors, The Tale of Bygone Years, the Apostle Andrew visited the
territories that were later to become Russia during his visit to the
Greek colonies on the Black Sea. The belief was held that Andrew crossed
through Russia from the mouth of the Dnieper River, passed the hills on
which Kiev would later be founded, and went as far north as the ancient
city of Novgorod.
"Wondrous to relate," said he, "I saw the land of the Slavs, and while I
was among them, I noticed their wooden bathhouses. They warm them to
extreme heat, then undress, and after anointing themselves with tallow,
they take young reeds and lash their bodies. They actually lash
themselves so violently that they barely escape alive. Then they drench
themselves with cold water, and thus are revived. They think nothing of
doing this every day, and actually inflict such voluntary torture on
themselves. They make of the act not a mere washing but a veritable
torment."
Another mention of the banya is found in the same Chronicle in the story
of Princess Olga's revenge for the murder of her husband, Prince Igor,
by the Slavic tribe of Drevlians in 945 AD. The leader of the Drevlians
had hopes of marrying the widow Olga and sent messengers to discuss the
idea. "When the Drevlians arrived, Olga commanded that a bath should be
made ready for them and said, 'Wash yourselves and come to me.' The
bath-house was heated and the unsuspecting Drevlians entered and began
to wash themselves. [Olga's] men closed the bath-house behind them and
Olga gave orders to set it on fire from the doors, so that the Drevlians
were all burned to death."
Banya buildings can be quite large with a number of different bathing
areas or simple wooden cabins like the traditional Finnish cottage
saunas. Russian banyas usually have three rooms: a steam room, a washing
room and an entrance room. The entrance room, called a predbannik or
pre-bath, has pegs to hang clothing upon and benches to rest on. The
washing room has a hot water tap, which uses water heated by the steam
room stove and a vessel or tap for cold water to mix water of a
comfortable temperature for washing. The heater has three compartments: a
fire box that is fed from the entrance room, the rock chamber, which
has a small hole to throw the water into and a water tank at the top.
The top of the water tank is usually closed to prevent vapour from
infiltrating the banya. Water to be thrown on the rocks should be taken
from the tank as this will make better steam than if cold water were
used. If an electric heater is used, the firebox is omitted. Most
Russians believe the wood-burning stove is a better banya heater and
studies have shown that negative ions are produced from wood-fired
heaters, while electric heaters produce positive ions. Physiologically,
the presence of negative ions in a sweat bath is as important as the
heat. Water from a bucket by the stove is poured over the heated rocks
in the stove. There are wooden benches across the room. People enter the
steam room when the stove is hot, but before water is poured on the
rocks. Getting a good sweat on before using water is preferred to using
steam right away, as the sweat is thought to protect and condition the
skin from the steam.
