Savusauna: The Oldest Form of Sauna in Finland, Through My Husband's Lens

I know there are plenty of sauna lovers here, so today I want to introduce something special: a savusauna (Finnish smoke sauna), seen through my husband Petri's lens.

Meet Lampila

The sauna in the video is called Lampila. It's over a hundred years old and lives in the Jämsä Sauna Village, alongside 24 other historic smoke saunas gathered from all over Finland. A savusauna has no chimney: the fire burns directly under the stones for hours, until they've stored so much heat that the sauna is ready without any fire burning, the smoke is fully vented out before anyone steps in.

Petri Anttiroiko is the guy behind iisivideo.fi, and this video was a personal project, born out of his love for sauna. And it shows in every shot.

How It's Heated

A little detail for the curious: heating a savusauna like this one takes six to eight hours, start to finish, from the first spark to the first löyly, until the stones themselves are holding around 370°C of pure, smoke-free heat. There's something almost meditative about that kind of patience. No rush. Just fire and time.

My Honest Take

Confession: the savusauna isn't actually my favorite type, I'm a wood-heated sauna girl at heart, the kind with its own chimney, still crackling while you bathe. But watching Petri's video reminded me just how old and deeply rooted in the culture sauna is here.

Stories like this one are a big part of why Tarinapala exists, little pieces of Finnish life, turned into something you can keep. If sauna culture is your thing too, come take a look at our sauna pins.

And tell me: what's your favorite kind of sauna?