On Day 5 of the banya tour, we visited Aachen, the capital of Charlemagne and the city of the incredible Carolus Thermen.
We spent the fourth day of the Banya Tour in Cologne, an almost 2,000-year-old German metropolis. After visiting the incredible Cologne Cathedral, we went to the second bathhouse of the Tour: Neptunbad.
Day 3 of the Banya Tour. On the road from Bad Homburg to Cologne we stopped in Drachenfels, the “Dragon’s Rock.” A feature of German myths, it became a point of pilgrimage for the 19th century Romantics. We end the day in Cologne’s 160-year old Malzmühle Brewery.
A visit to Bad Homburg, a town of spas, casinos, and aristocracy. At least, used to be. For us, it was a town of Taunus Therme, the first German bathhouse in our tour.
This article is a first in the series of posts about The Banya Tour. During the tour, the participants traveled across Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Estonia visiting saunas and banya, enjoying local culture. The tour started in Frankfurt, the financial heart of Europe, the city that reinvented itself and the city that brought us together.
In a few days we are set to start our first Banya Tour – an exploration of culture, history, food, and, of course, communal bathing traditions of the Old World. In this post, we offer a preview of what is to come!
This article focuses on the extravagant story of Sutro’s Baths, once largest communal swimming pool in the world built in the Wild West.
What did Greco-Roman world give to the culture of banya? In this article, we look into the Roman bathing traditions. Luxurious thermae were the nerve centers of Roman cities and a heart of society.
This week The Banya Journal sat down with the founder and owner of Archimedes Banya, Dr. Mikhail Brodsky. We discussed the core elements and principles of Russian banya, Dr. Brodsky’s banya routine, and the importance of social aspect in bathing experience.
Banya was born in a world filled with supernatural forces, where sacred was inseparable from profane. In this article, we look at the folk traditions of banya and try to see whether that worldview can make sense foe us today.
