The archaic form
The earth sauna is the most primal building form of the sweat bath: dug into a slope or covered by an earth wall, with massive walls, subdued light and often a wood stove as its heart. Historically it stands at the beginning of sauna history — the earliest Finnish saunas were earth pits with hot stones — and precisely this cave atmosphere makes its appeal today.
The climate under the ground
The mass of earth acts as an enormous heat store: the heat — usually a vigorous 90 to 110 °C in the classic form — stands evenly and calmly in the room, without the draughts and temperature swings of light cabins. Add the earthy smell, the dark half-light and the silence of the thick walls. Many sauna-goers describe the earth sauna as the most intense and at the same time most meditative station of the landscape.
Earth sauna and earth-wall sauna
The terms merge into each other: the classic earth sauna is dug in or built into a slope; the earth-wall sauna stands at ground level and is covered by heaped-up earth — climatically related, structurally simpler. Both belong in the outdoor area of a sauna landscape and are usually the hottest, quietest address there.
The earth sauna in a spa hotel
In hotel sauna landscapes the earth or earth-wall sauna is the signature piece of the sauna garden — the LindenSpa of the Spa & GolfResort Weimarer Land, for instance, runs an earth-wall sauna in its sauna dramaturgy. The classic three-step there: earth sauna, plunge pool, sunbathing lawn under the open sky — the most rustic form of sauna-going a spa can offer.
