Banya buildings can be quite large with a number of different bathing areas or simple wooden cabins like the traditional Finnish cottage saunas.
Russian banyas usually have three rooms: a steam room, a washing room, and an entrance room. The entrance room, called a predbannik (предбанник) or pre-bath, customarily has pegs to hang clothing upon and benches to rest on. The washing room has a tap of very hot water, which is heated in the stove of the steam room. A vessel or tap for cold water is usually located here for mixing the water to accommodate a comfortable washing temperature. The heater is usually composed of three compartments, with a fire box that is fed from the entrance room. Sitting atop this is the rock chamber, which usually has a small hole to throw the water into; the smoke pipe continues up through the rock chamber and through the water tank, which is the top-most section of the stove. A tap connects the water tank to the washing room to supply the hot water for washing. The top of the water tank is usually closed to prevent vapour from infiltrating the banya, and water to be thrown on the rocks should be taken from the tank as this will make better steam than if cold water were used. If an electric heater is used, the firebox is omitted. Most Russians believe the wood-burning stove is a better banya heater, and studies have shown that negative ions are produced from wood-fired heaters, while electric heaters produce positive ions. The steam room, called a parilka (Russian: парилка), usually contains a wood-burning stove, which generates the heat. Beside the stove stands a bucket of water with a ladle. The water is poured over the heated stones on the stove. Usually there are wooden benches across the room from the stove. People usually enter the steam room when the stove is hot, but has not yet been splashed with water. Getting a good sweat on before using water is preferred to using steam right away, as the sweat is thought to protect and condition the skin from the steam. There are banyas that are heated in the "black" style (по-чёрному) and banyas that are heated in the "white" style (по-белому). In the first case, the smoke is let out through a hole in the ceiling. They are characterized by boulder stones, clay balls, and cauldrons for the hot water. The firewood is usually birch. The smoke from the wood darkens the inside of the banya (hence the "black" moniker). For white banyas, there are different constructions, but all have stone stoves with a tank to heat the water. For this reason, white banyas use larger branches as firewood.
Chapkas, or felt hats, are used to protect the hair, and there's often something to sit upon as the hot, dry wood can be very uncomfortable for bare skin. The chapka also allows the user to tolerate higher temperatures without feeling lightheaded or faint. Chapkas, padjopniks (mats), and a felt mitts are commonly sold in sets in shops in Russia, along with aromatherapy scents specially made for inclusion into the steam water. After the first good sweat is induced, it is customary to cool off in the breeze outdoors, or splash around in cold water or in a lake or river. The banya is then entered again, and steam is created by throwing small amounts of water upon the rocks in the heater. It is desirable to throw small enough amounts on rocks that are sufficiently hot to ensure that steam is fine and water evaporates quickly; otherwise steam will be too cool and have a clammy "feel". The steam should feel like a wave of heat and not be overly moist, this is due to the high temperature of the rocks and the quick evaporation, causing very fine particles of vapour that are highly dispersed. Waving the venik will also cause a wave of convective heat to be felt, the reverse of a wind-chill effect. The second sweat is commonly the first time venik would be used, but it is not uncommon to wait until the third session. After each sweat, cooling off is repeated, and patrons may take this break to drink beer, tea or other beverages, play games or relax in good company in an antechamber to the steam room. A black banya is much more rudimentary, and is generally considered to be less desirable than the "white" banya described above.
Commercial banyas often have only a steam room, or a steam room and a dry room, depending on local custom, or the money the owner of the banya was willing to spend.
Going into the steam room is alternated with showers or baths of cold water, as well as standing in the breeze to cool off outside. In the parilka, people often hit themselves or others with bunches of dried branches and leaves from white birch or other suitable trees (called venik, веник) in order to improve the circulation. In summer, fresh branches are usually used. They are have a short useful life and smell of cut grass. In winter, bushes that have been dried and then moistened in hot water are used. It is important that the bushes have leaves, so they don't hurt when used. Because it gets dark early in winter, people may roll in the snow with no clothes on, or may run to cold lakes where holes have been cut into the ice for post-banya bathing purposes.
Another kind of banya, called a "pokhodnaya banya" (походная баня, hiking banya), is popular among the Russian military, mountaineers, and other people who travel for extended periods in harsh environments. It consists of a steambath set up in a tent. Hiking banyas are usually made near a riverbank where many big, round stones are available. The stones are made into a big circular pile, 1 - 4 meters in diameter and 0.5 - 1 meters in height, so that there is space left on the ground to make a fire inside of the pile. Then, a load of firewood is burned for a few hours in this improvised stove, until the stones on the surface of the pile become so hot that water poured on them turns into steam. Around the pile, a space is tarped to form a small tent. The banya is ready when it becomes very hot inside and there is a lot of steam. Bathers can then cool off in an ice-cold mountain river.

History of the Great Russian Bath 
The fact that Bania could have been transported from Leningrad (St. Petersburg) to Helsinki without locals knowing the difference demonstrates the striking similarities between the Russian and Finnish bathing styles. Because ritual, folklore, and even construction of both baths are so similar it is safe to assume their development has been parallel, although no records show when each culture began sweat bathing. Considering all that northern Europe has in common, it's no wonder: cold winters (even as far south as Moscow, where the first frost comes in late September and continues until April); thickly wooded forests that provide ample wood for fuel and construction; and the hard-working peasant's dependence on folk medicine.
No sweat bath in the world has been as well documented as the Russian bath. Finnish sauna information is meager in comparison. Early Russian chronicles commonly mention the bania, and when European journalists swarmed to Russia in the centuries following the Reformation, the Russian bath made exciting feature material to send home. The Russians became reknown for their enthusiastic bathing. In 1914, M. Hartea told the Finnish Museum Society, "In Moscow the interest in bania is greater than here in Finland. The Russians conquer us Finns as far as interest in the sauna goes."
If the history of the early 1900s had been different, if Russian folklore hadn't been concealed behind a dense political curtain, the bania might have become a household word in America instead of the Finnish sauna.
The parallel development of the sauna and the bania applies only to northwest Russia. Elsewhere in the Soviet Union, all types of sweat baths discussed in this book exist. In the southwest the baths are fashioned after the Islamic and Roman models. Hypocaust heating was found as far north as Kuybyshev on the Volga River. Among the nomadic tribes of central and eastern Soviet Union, portable sweat baths are used--much like the sweat lodges of the North American Indians. Sweat bathing is so popular in the USSR that even in areas where material shortages exist, as in the barren areas of Siberia, the Soviet build sweats from turf or clay. Some are dug into cliffs and given only a veneer of wood. These are called laznva. The word itself suggests the origin of the bath house as well as the means for entering it--lazit means to creep, or to descend. In these primitive sweat baths there is only a dirt floor covered with hay or straw. One of the most curious forms of sweat bathing is the baking of the body in bread ovens, a practice found throughout the USSR (more on that later).
The black bania of the northwest is the Russian equivalent to the Finnish savusauna, while the white bania refers to concrete baths in the cities. Because of the white bania, the Russian bath is often thought of as a steam bath. Low temperatures and high water concentration create steam, while high temperatures with the same water concentration will not produce visible steam. Because white banias were so heavily used by the urban Russians, it was nearly impossible to maintain a high temperature. As a result, steam filled the hot room. Travelers to Russia then brought back word of these "steamy" Russian baths.
One of the earliest descriptions of the bania comes from the Russian Primary Chronicle of 1113, in describing the missionary work of the apostle, Andreas:
He descended from the hill on which Kiev was subsequently built, and continued his journey up the Dnieper. He then reached the Slavs at the point where Nogorod is now situated. He saw these people existing according to their customs, and, on observing how they bathed and drenched themselves, he wondered at them. He went thence among the Farangians and came to Rome, where he recounted what he had learned and observed.
'Wondrous to relate,' he said, 'l saw the land of the Slavs, and while I was among them, I noticed their wooden bath-houses. They warm them to extreme heat, then undress, and after annointing themselves with tallow, take young reeds and lash their bodies. They actually lash themselves so violently that they barely escape alive. Then they drench themselves with cold water, and thus are revived. They think nothing of doing this every day and actually inflict such voluntary torture upon themselves. They make of the act not a mere washing but a veritable torment.'
Another mention of the bania is found in the same Chronicle, in the story of Princess Olga's revenge for the murder of her husband, Prince Igor, by the Slavic tribe of Drevlians in 945 AD. The leader of the Drevlians had hopes of marrying the widow Olga and sent messengers to discuss the idea. "When the Drevlians arrived Olga commanded that a bath should be made ready for them, and said: 'Wash yourselves and come to me.' The bath-house was heated and the unsuspecting Drevlians entered and began to wash themselves, after which Olga's men closed the bath-house behind them and she gave orders to set it on fire from the doors, so that the Drevlians were all burned to death."
In a 906 AD treaty between Russia and Greece, the Russians stipulated that their merchants trading in Constantinople were not given only "bread, wine, meat, fish and fruit, but also the opportunity to bathe as often as they wished." Although the baths in Constantinople were not like the bania, they would suffice in a foreign land.
In the early 1600s, a German librarian, Adamus Olearius, visited Russia and gave this account of the bania in his book, Persian Travel Tales:
Their baths are the only thing that have any resemblance of what we call Gentile, in Muscovy (Moscow), tho' the Publick ones are but very Indifferently fitted for that use. At Astracan I went incognito into one of them, which was only parted from another Room by a few Deal Boards, which being not well joyn'd, you might with ease see all what pass's there; besides that there was but one Door for Men and Women to go out or in, some of both Sexes, who were pretty modest hiding their Privy Parts with a handful of Leaves soak'd in Water, the rest appearing stark naked; nay, some of the Women came in that posture to speak with their Husbands in our Room, without the least sign of Bashfulness.
It is most surprising thing to see them come out of such an intense degree of heat all of a sudden, and run into the cold Water, or have it poured upon them; or in the Winter wallow themselves in the snow, and so return into the stoves again; which we have also observed several times in the Finlanders, who live in Livonia, no other reason being to be assign'd for it, than a Custom, which being turned into a Habit, they are not sensible of these opposite Qualifications of Heat and Cold as other People are; for we made this observation at Narva, That the Muscovite Boys of 8, 9, or 10 years of age would stand for half an Hour together bare-footed upon the Ice, without ever complaining of Cold. The Germans who dwell in Muscovy and Livonia are very nice in their Stoves; they strew Pine Leaves powder'd, and all sorts of Herbs and Flowers upon the Floor; which, together with the Lye make a very agreeable Scent. The Seats or Benches which are along the Walls placed one above the other, that one may take what degree of Heat one pleases, are covered with clean Sheets and Pillows filled with Hay; upon these you lie down to Sweat, every one having a Servant Maid, who only in her Smock, Rubs, Washes and Wipes you. As soon as she comes in, she presents you with some Radish and Salt; and if you be a particular friend, the Mistress of the House, or her Daughter, brings you a composition of Wine and Beer, with some crub'd bread, Limon Slices, Sugar and grated Nutmeg.
Olearius also described the luxurious banias of the Czar's Kremlin benches upholstered with leather and thick pillows strewn across the floor. Rather than jumping in a lake or tumbling in the snow after bathing, a person of nobility would retire to a cooling room with wall-to-wall mirrors and a servant waving stork-feather fans.
From then until the turn of the 20th century, Russian bathing was a favorite topic of visitors to Russia. Casanova in 1774, Tooke in 1779, Porter in 1809, Cox in 1884--the list is endless. Europe, having forgotten its own bathing past, became attracted to the spectacle of whole villages bathing together, the extravagance of the czars.