Pispala Sauna Association Address: Pispalan valtatie 9 FI-33250 Tampere FINLAND Email: saunayhdistys [ät] rajaportti.fi
In the Rajaportti Sauna Archive one can receive information and hear stories from Rajaportti sauna and Tampere's other public saunas in videos. There are a lot of photos, especially from the year 1989 onwards, when Pispala Sauna Association was founded. And there is a multitude of articles and documents gathered over the years to explore, related to saunas.
At best, in Tampere, there were well over 100 public saunas. Especially after the war, the town councel took notice of developing "the sauna conditions in the town" - the expression of which was the synonym for public saunas - and had built big "sauna houses". One would have saunas nearly in every street corner, and for many generations, going to public sauna was the most common and everyday thing to do.
For the most of the people in the town, saunas were the only place, where to wash and clean up oneself. But saunas were not only bathing centres, but also social centres. Mothers were taking care of each other's children, and everybody stayed online, what was happening locally and globally, while discussing of the news, when sitting in the warm wave of heat with other people. Fairly often one would hear great stories, while sweating there.