Rajaportti Sauna
The volunteers who run Rajaportti in Pispala call it Finland's oldest public sauna still in use, heated since 1906. Men and women sit on either side of one stone stove split by a wall, and share the cooling yard outside.
Getting in
- Public transport
- Buses 7, 8, 70A and 70B from Keskustori to stop 1504
- Address
- Pispalan valtatie 9, 33250 Tampere
Entry, hours and rules
- Entry
- Adults, Monday and Wednesday (7 EUR reduced)€8
- Adults, Friday and Saturday (11 EUR reduced)€12
- Children 6 to 15 (under 6 free)€4
- Hours
- Mon16:00-22:00
- Tueclosed
- Wed16:00-22:00
- Thuclosed
- Fri14:00-22:00
- Sat14:00-22:00
- Sunclosed
- Swimwear and rules
- Separate men's and women's sides. Mixed sauna on some Thursdays, when swimwear is optional.
- Children
- Children under 6 enter free; ages 6 to 15 pay a child rate.
- Tickets
- Day ticket, no time slot
- Official site
- rajaportinsauna.fi
- Facilities
- SaunaChanging roomsCaféTowel hire
About Rajaportti Sauna
The stone stove holds about three cubic metres and more than a tonne of stones, fired with metre-long logs at the start of each sauna day until they glow red. Once the first steam has cleared the fumes and the dampers are shut, it heats the room through the afternoon and evening, drier and sharper early on and softer and moister towards closing. Tampere once had well over a hundred public saunas, and Rajaportti is the city's only block stone sauna of its kind left. The City of Tampere owns it, and the Pispala sauna association, founded in 1989, runs it; on the last Wednesday of each month the sauna is kept silent.