Sauna types and sweat baths of the world

Sauna types for the garden

These types can be built in your own garden today. Each page tells its story and links to our guide for that type.

Finnish sauna

The best-known sauna – from earth pit to UNESCO heritage.

Smoke sauna

The original sauna without a chimney – heated for hours.

Wood-fired sauna

The classic chimney sauna: fire, stones, steam.

Electric sauna

Since 1938: the sauna at the push of a button.

Barrel sauna

How the barrel became a sauna – and why the round shape works.

Sauna cabin

From the log cabin by the lake to the sauna cabin in your garden.

Infrared sauna

Gentle heat from emitters – with a history going back to 1891.

Bio sauna

The gentle sauna: less heat, more humidity.

Steam room

Around 50 °C at almost 100 % humidity – the humid counterpart of the sauna.

Kelo sauna

Made from pines that dried standing for centuries.

Kota sauna

The many-sided hut from Lapland – as a grill or sauna kota.

Mobile sauna

Sauna trailer, tent sauna, sauna raft – the sauna that travels.

Sweat baths of other cultures

The sauna isn't only Finnish. Many cultures developed their own sweat baths independently of each other – with striking parallels.

Banya (Eastern Europe)

Steam, birch whisks and three rooms – Eastern Europe's sweat bath.

Roman baths

Laconicum, caldarium, hypocaust – the sweat bath of antiquity, in Switzerland too.

Hammam

The steam bath of the Islamic world – heir to the Roman baths.

Sweat lodge (North America)

The ceremonial sweat lodge of Indigenous peoples of North America.

Temazcal (Mesoamerica)

The "house of heat" of the Aztecs and Maya.

Qargi (Yup'ik & Inuit)

Sweat baths in the Arctic community house.

Steppe nomads (Scythians)

The felt-tent steam bath described by Herodotus.

Hanjeungmak (Korea)

Korea's stone kiln sauna, fired with pine wood.

Mushiburo (Japan)

The steam baths of Buddhist temples.

Sweathouses (Ireland)

Small stone houses for sweating – more than 300 survive.

A short history of sweating

1. 5th century BCHerodotus describes the felt-tent steam bath of the Scythians.
2. AntiquityRoman baths with a sweating room (laconicum) and underfloor heating; in 354 Rome counts 952 baths.
3. Pre-Columbian eraThe temazcal in Mesoamerica.
4. 7th–8th centuryEarly hammams of the Umayyad period.
5. 12th centuryThe Primary Chronicle describes the steam bath of the East Slavs, the banya.
6. 1266First commercial bathhouse mentioned in Japan; bathing culture had begun with the mushiburo of the temples.
7. 15th centuryThe Korean hanjeungmak appears in the Annals of King Sejong.
8. 1796First description of an Irish sweathouse.
9. 1891John Harvey Kellogg invents the electric light bath – a forerunner of the infrared sauna.
10. 1891James Mooney documents the sweat lodge among almost all peoples north of Mexico.
11. 1938First factory-made heater for the electric sauna.
12. 2020Finnish sauna culture becomes UNESCO heritage.

The dates mark first mentions or evidence, not origins – many traditions are much older. You'll find the sources on each page.

From history to your own sauna

Would you like a sauna in your garden? Start with our guides to the barrel sauna, the sauna cabin and wood or electric heaters, work out the costs and check the building permit rules in your canton.