Baltā pirts (the White Sauna)
Author: Anothertravelguide.com0 COMMENTS
Latvian sauna or bathhouse traditions honor the elements of water, air and fire. In their core essence, they represent man's reunion with nature, be it a tree, a flower or a stone, and in such an interpretation, they exist only in these latitudes and some regions of Scandinavia.
Observing the authentic Latvian sauna traditions, Baltā pirts offers swatting with leafy bunches of twigs collected around summer solstice at the organic farm "Ezermalas". The same farm offers a wide range of natural sauna cosmetics, like cleansing body scrubs with salt and various herbs - lavender, peppermint, thyme, cinnamon, marigold, etc., and emollient hemp or caraway honey. They say that chamomile honey can heal even wounded feelings!
Big black boulder stones help maintaining heat in the sauna. They can endure extremely high temperatures as big logs of deciduous trees blaze in a huge centenarian wood-burning stove.
Built in 1908, the bathhouse Baltā pirts is located at 71 Tallinas Street (between A. Čaka and J. Asara Streets) and has endured two world wars and four changes of government. Its current owner is a great grandson of Hugo Lapiņš, the man who back in the beginning of the last century built it for the money he had earned from his coffee exporting business from Managua in Nicaragua to Europe. Until the early 40s, Baltā pirts received up to 2.000 people every a day, but today it's fully modernized and offers also beauty treatments and therapeutic procedures.
71 Tallinas Street
www.baltapirts.lv
www.facebook.com/BaltaPirts
12.2010
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