My post was inspired by Luis Gomez and his "One Photograph a Day" today post (link).
I found this interesting pair of shapes at Rozhdestvenka street. The dome of the church of Nicholas the Miraclemaker and the water tower of Sanduny's bathhouse.
The church was constructed in 1860-1871. It was warehouse first and later the auditorium of the department of drawing of Architectural college - during Soviet Russia, in 1996 the building was returned to Orthodox church and restored.
Sandunovsky bathhouse (here I post its side entrance) is one of the city attractions.
Opened in 1808, renovated to modern appearance in 1896. That time the bath had its own independent water and electricity supply lines and had 400 attendants. Hotel and restaurants were also available.
I have never been there, but if you visit their site (link to interiors). Available in English - button in left upper corner of the page) you will get the idea how the naked person can feel as a king in the kingdom (rather pompous for my taste), besides the useful heath effects of Russian national bath. Here is the info about Russian bath types I found in Wiki:
The baths heated "in a black way", have the open center which warms up not only stones, but also walls of a bath. The smoke from the center leaves through a door or an outlet in a ceiling. Usually in it is stone pile and a boiler for hot water. It is heated by fire wood, preferentially deciduous breeds (for example, birch).
At wrong heating the bath "tastes bitter". Wood inside of a bath is strongly smoked, as a result walls of a bath have black color, but it also serves objectives of disinfection of facility of a bath. Before using it is necessary to air from a smoke and to wash up from a soot полок.
The baths heated "in a white way", has various designs.
In such bath necessarily there is a stone, brick or metal furnace with a tank for heating water. Such bath requires more fire wood for heating, however it is much easier and more pleasant in operation. Modern individual baths have such design also.
Google map.
Posted by Irina.
