The Russian Bath in Antarctica is the Russian bath (banya

Banya (sauna)

Banya in Russian can refer to any kind of steam bath, but usually to the Russian type of sauna. In Bulgarian, banya usually refers to a bath and bathing...

) of Novolazarevskaya Station

Novolazarevskaya Station

Novolazarevskaya Station is a Russian, formerly Soviet, Antarctic research station. The station is located at Schirmacher Oasis, Queen Maud Land, 75 km from the Antarctic coast, from which it is separated by Lazarev Ice Shelf. It was opened on January 18, 1961 by the 6th Soviet Antarctic...

, Schirmacher Oasis

Schirmacher Oasis

The Schirmacher Oasis is a 25 km long and up to 3 km wide ice-free plateau with more than 100 fresh water lakes. It is situated in the Schirmacher Hills on the Princess Astrid Coast in Queen Maud Land in East Antarctica, and is on average 100 metres above sea level...

, Queen Maud Land

Queen Maud Land

Queen Maud Land is a c. 2.7 million-square-kilometre region of Antarctica claimed as a dependent territory by Norway. The territory lies between 20° west and 45° east, between the British Antarctic Territory to the west and the Australian Antarctic Territory to the east. The latitudinal...

, Antarctica . It is the only glued timber building in Antarctica.

History

The idea of the Russian Bath in Antarctica project was born in 2006. The Russian Bath became the first building of that kind on the territory of Antarctica. Glued timber size 160*160 cm was chosen as material for the Russian Bath cause of its amazing thermal stability and energy efficiency. In summer 2006 the project of Russian Bath named «Antarctica» was developed, produced and test builded on Greenside’s factory in Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

, Russia. All engineering systems were first made on special test model of Russian Bath in December 2006 - March 2007 on Saint-Petersburg’s Greenside factory. Glued timber parts of Russian Bath were shipped to Antarctica by icebreaker «Akademik Fedorov»

Akademik Fyodorov

The R/V Akademik Fyodorov is a Russian scientific diesel-electric research vessel, the flagship of the Russian polar research fleet. It was built in Rauma, Finland for the Soviet Union and completed on September 8, 1987. It started operations on October 24, 1987 in the USSR...

in November 2006.

November 2007, «Antarctic team» of Greenside specialists had a trip to South Pole to execute construction works of glued timber Russian Bath kit. Now this building stands on Novolazarevskaya station, Schirmacher Oasis, Queen Maud Land, Antarctica. Building process took 43 days.

Grand opening

Grand opening of Russian Bath in Antarctica had place on 20 December 2007. Since then lots of people visited Greenside Russian Bath. Guests of the Bath includes government ministers of Russian Federation, State Duma deputys, members of Russian and foreign polar stations in Antarctica, scientists and other famous people. In February 2009 the world famous member of royal family had visit to Russian Bath in Antarctica as well.

Awards

In August 2008 Russian Bath in Antarctica was assigned as world record and took its place in the "Record Book of Russia" as "first building of Russian Bath in Antarctica made of glued timber" and as "Great achievement to conduce for promotion positive image of Russia".