We have heard this more than once: “We washed ourselves, but in Europe they used perfume.” It sounds very cool, and, most importantly, patriotic. So it’s clear where everything comes from; centuries-old traditions of cleanliness and hygiene are more important than an attractive “wrapper” of smells. But a shadow of doubt, of course, cannot help but arise - after all, if Europeans really “didn’t wash for centuries”, they could European civilization Is it normal to develop and give us masterpieces? We liked the idea of looking for confirmation or refutation of this myth in European works of art of the Middle Ages.
Bath and washing in medieval Europe
The culture of washing in Europe dates back to the ancient Roman tradition, material evidence of which has survived to this day in the form of remains of Roman baths. Numerous descriptions indicate that a sign of good manners for a Roman aristocrat was visiting a thermal bath, but as a tradition not only hygienic - massage services were also offered there, and a select society gathered there. On certain days, the baths became accessible to people of low standing.
Baths of Diocletian II in Rome
“This tradition, which the Germans and the tribes that entered Rome with them could not destroy, migrated to the Middle Ages, but with some adjustments. The baths remained - they had all the attributes of thermal baths, were divided into sections for the aristocracy and commoners, and continued to serve as meeting places and interesting pastimes,” as Fernand Braudel testifies in his book “Structures of Everyday Life.”
But we will digress from a simple statement of fact - the existence of baths in medieval Europe. We are interested in how the change in lifestyle in Europe with the advent of the Middle Ages affected the tradition of washing. In addition, we will try to analyze the reasons that could prevent hygiene on the scale that has become familiar to us now.
So, the Middle Ages are the pressure of the church, this is scholasticism in science, the fires of the Inquisition... This is the emergence of an aristocracy in a form that was not familiar to Ancient Rome. Across Europe, many castles of feudal lords are being built, around which dependent, vassal settlements are formed. Cities acquired walls and craft artels, quarters of craftsmen. Monasteries are growing. How did the Europeans wash themselves during this difficult period?
Water and firewood - without them there is no bathhouse
What is needed for a bath? Water and heat to heat the water. Let's imagine medieval city, which, unlike Rome, does not have a water supply system via viaducts from the mountains. Water is taken from the river, and you need a lot of it. Even more firewood is needed, because heating water requires long burning of wood, and boilers for heating were not yet known.
Water and firewood are supplied by people who make their own business, an aristocrat or wealthy citizen pays for such services, public baths charge high fees for the use of swimming pools, thus compensating low prices on public “bath days”. The class structure of society already makes it possible to clearly differentiate between visitors.
François Clouet - Lady in the Bath, circa 1571
We're not talking about steam rooms - marble baths do not allow you to use steam, there are pools with heated water. Steam rooms - tiny, wood-panelled rooms, appeared in Northern Europe and Rus' because it was cold there and there was a lot of available fuel (wood). In the center of Europe they are simply irrelevant. A public bathhouse existed in the city, it was accessible, and the aristocrats could and did use their own “soaphouses.” But before the advent of centralized water supply, washing every day was an incredible luxury.
But to supply water, at least a viaduct is required, and in flat areas - a pump and a storage tank. Before the advent of the steam engine and electric motor, there was no question of a pump; before the advent of stainless steel, there was no way to store water for a long time; it would “go rotten” in the container. That is why the bathhouse was not accessible to everyone, but a person could get into it at least once a week in a European city.
Public baths in European cities
France. The fresco “Public Bath” (1470) depicts people of both sexes in a large room with a bathtub and a table set right in it. It’s interesting that there are “rooms” with beds right there... In one of the beds there is a couple, another couple is clearly heading towards the bed. It is difficult to say to what extent this setting conveys the atmosphere of a “wash”; it all looks more like an orgy by the pool... However, according to evidence and reports from the Parisian authorities, already in 1300 there were about thirty public baths in the city.
Giovanni Boccaccio describes a visit to a Neapolitan bath by young aristocrats as follows:
“In Naples, when the ninth hour came, Catella, taking her maid with her and without changing her intention in any way, went to those baths... The room was very dark, which each of them was pleased with”...
European, resident large city in the Middle Ages he could use the services of public baths, for which funds from the city treasury were allocated. But the price for this pleasure was not low. Washing at home hot water in large capacity was excluded due to high cost firewood, water and no drainage.
The artist Memo di Filipuccio depicted a man and woman in a wooden tub in the fresco “The Conjugal Bath” (1320). Judging by the furnishings in the draped room, these are not ordinary townspeople.
The “Valencian Code” of the 13th century prescribes going to the bathhouse separately, on a daily basis, for men and women, also setting aside Saturday for Jews. The document establishes a maximum fee for visiting, and stipulates that it will not be charged to servants. Let us pay attention: from the servants. This means that a certain class or property qualification already exists.
As for the water supply system, the Russian journalist Gilyarovsky describes Moscow water carriers already at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, drawing water into their barrels from the “fantal” (fountain) on Theater Square to deliver it to homes. And the same picture was observed before in many European cities. The second problem is waste. Export huge amount Collecting waste water from baths required some effort or investment. Therefore, a public bath was not a pleasure for every day. But people washed there is, of course, no reason to talk about “unwashed Europe”, as opposed to “pure” Rus'. The Russian peasant heated a bathhouse once a week, and the nature of the development of Russian cities made it possible to have a bathhouse right in the yard.
Albrecht Durer - Women's Bath, 1505-10
Albrecht Durer - Men's bathhouse, 1496-97
Albrecht Dürer's magnificent engraving "Men's Bath" shows a group of men drinking beer by an outdoor pool under a wooden canopy, and the engraving "Women's Bath" shows women washing themselves. Both engravings date back to the very time in which, according to the assurances of some of our fellow citizens, “Europe did not wash itself.”
The painting by Hans Bock (1587) depicts public baths in Switzerland - many people, both men and women, spend time in a fenced pool, in the middle of which a large wooden table with drinks floats. Judging by the background of the picture, the pool is open... Behind is the area. It can be assumed that this depicts a bathhouse receiving water from the mountains, possibly from hot springs.
No less interesting historical building“Bagno Vignole” in Tuscany (Italy) - there you can still bathe in hot, naturally heated water saturated with hydrogen sulfide.
A bathhouse in a castle and palace is a huge luxury
An aristocrat could afford his own soap shop, like Charles the Bold, who carried a silver bath with him. It was made of silver, since it was believed that this metal disinfects water. In the castle of a medieval aristocrat there was a soap dish, but it was far from accessible to the public, and, moreover, it was expensive to use.
Albrecht Altdorfer - Bathing of Susanna (detail), 1526
The main tower of the castle - the donjon - dominated the walls. Water sources in such a complex were a real strategic resource, because during a siege the enemy poisoned wells and blocked canals. The castle was built at a commanding height, which means that the water was either raised by a gate from the river or taken from its own well in the courtyard. Delivering fuel to such a castle was an expensive pleasure; heating water when heating with fireplaces was a huge problem, because in a direct fireplace chimney up to 80 percent of the heat simply “flies out the chimney.” An aristocrat in a castle could afford a bath no more than once a week, and only under favorable circumstances.
The situation was no better in palaces, which were essentially the same castles, only with a larger number of people - from courtiers to servants. It was very difficult to wash such a mass of people with available water and fuel. The huge stoves for heating water could not be constantly lit in the palace.
A certain luxury could be afforded by aristocrats who traveled to mountain resorts with thermal waters - to Baden, whose coat of arms depicts a couple bathing in a wooden, rather cramped bathtub. The emperor granted the coat of arms to the city Holy Empire Frederick III in 1480. But note that the bathtub in the image is wooden, it’s just a tub, and here’s why - the stone container cooled the water very quickly. In 1417, according to Poggio Braccioli, who accompanied Pope John XXIII, Baden had three dozen public baths. The city, located in the area of thermal springs, from where water came through a system of simple clay pipes, could afford such luxury.
Charlemagne, according to Einhard, loved to spend time at the hot springs of Aachen, where he specially built himself a palace for this purpose.
It always costs money to wash...
A certain role in the oppression of the “soap business” in Europe was played by the church, which very negatively perceived the gathering of naked people in any circumstances. And after the next invasion of the plague, the bathing business suffered greatly, as public baths became places of spread of infection, as evidenced by Erasmus of Rotterdam (1526): “Twenty-five years ago, nothing was as popular in Brabant as public baths: today there are already no - the plague taught us to do without them.”
The appearance of soap similar to modern - controversial issue, but there is evidence of Crescans Davin Sabonerius, who in 1371 began the production of this product based on olive oil. Subsequently, soap was available to wealthy people, and commoners made do with vinegar and ash.
Probably many, having read foreign literature, and especially “historical” books by foreign authors about ancient Rus', were horrified by the dirt and stench that supposedly reigned in distant times in Russian cities and villages. Now this false template has become so ingrained in our consciousness that even modern films about ancient Rus' are filmed with the indispensable use of these lies, and, thanks to the cinema, they continue to spread noodles about the fact that our ancestors allegedly lived in dugouts or in the forest in swamps, did not wash for years, wore rags, and as a result they often got sick and died in middle age , rarely living past 40 years of age.
When someone, not very conscientious or decent, wants to describe the “real” past of another people, and especially an enemy (we have long been and quite seriously been considered an enemy by the entire “civilized” world), then, by inventing a fictitious past, they write off, of course, from yourself, since they cannot know anything else either from their own experience or from the experience of their ancestors. This is exactly what “enlightened” Europeans have been doing for many centuries, diligently guided through life, and long ago resigned to their unenviable fate.
But lies always come to light sooner or later, and we now know for certain Who in fact was unwashed, but who smelt clean and beautiful. And enough facts from the past have accumulated to evoke appropriate images in the inquisitive reader, and to personally experience all the “charms” of a supposedly clean and well-groomed Europe, and to decide for himself where - Truth, and where – lie.
So, one of the first mentions of the Slavs that Western historians give notes how home the peculiarity of the Slavic tribes is that they "pouring water", that is wash in running water , while all other peoples of Europe washed themselves in tubs, basins, buckets and bathtubs. Even Herodotus in the 5th century BC. speaks of the inhabitants of the steppes of the northeast that they pour water on stones and steam in huts. Washing under jet It seems so natural to us that we do not seriously suspect that we are almost the only, or at least one of the few, peoples in the world that do exactly this.
Foreigners who came to Russia in the 5th-8th centuries noted the cleanliness and neatness of Russian cities. Here the houses did not stick to each other, but stood wide apart, there were spacious, ventilated courtyards. People lived in communities, in peace, which means that parts of the streets were common, and therefore no one, as in Paris, could throw out a bucket of slop just for the street, demonstrating that only my home is private property, A don't care about the rest!
I repeat once again that the custom "pouring water" previously distinguished in Europe precisely our ancestors - the Slavic-Aryans, and was assigned specifically to them as distinctive feature, which clearly had some kind of ritual, ancient meaning. And this meaning, of course, was transmitted to our ancestors many thousands of years ago through the commandments of the gods, namely, another god Perun, who flew to our Earth 25,000 years ago, bequeathed: “Wash your hands after your deeds, for whoever does not wash his hands loses the power of God...” His other commandment reads: “Cleanse yourself in the waters of Iriy, which is a river flowing in the Holy Land, in order to wash your white body and sanctify it with God’s power.”.
The most interesting thing is that these commandments work flawlessly for the Russian in the soul of a person. So, any of us probably feel disgusted and “the cats are scratching our souls” when we feel dirty or very sweaty after a hard day. physical labor, or the summer heat, and you want to quickly wash off this dirt from yourself and refresh yourself under the streams of clean water. I am sure that we have a genetic dislike for dirt, and therefore we strive, even without knowing the commandment about washing our hands, always, coming from the street, for example, to immediately wash our hands and wash our face in order to feel fresh and get rid of fatigue.
What was going on in the supposedly enlightened and clean Europe since the beginning of the Middle Ages, and, oddly enough, already until the 18th century?
Having destroyed the culture of the ancient Etruscans (“these Russians” or “Rus of Etruria”) - the Russian people who in ancient times settled in Italy and created there great civilization, which proclaimed the cult of purity and had baths, the monuments of which have survived to this day, and around which it was created MYTH(MYTH - we distorted or distorted the facts - my transcript A.N..) about the Roman Empire, which never existed, the Jewish barbarians (and this was, undoubtedly, them, and no matter what kind of people they covered for their vile purposes) enslaved Western Europe for many centuries, imposing their lack of culture, filth and depravity .
Europe hasn't washed itself for centuries!!!
We first find confirmation of this in letters Princess Anna- daughters of Yaroslav the Wise, Prince of Kyiv XI century AD It is now believed that by marrying your daughter to French king Henry I, he strengthened his influence in “enlightened” Western Europe. In fact, it was prestigious for European kings to create alliances with Russia, since Europe was far behind in all respects, both cultural and economic, compared to the Great Empire of our ancestors.
Princess Anna brought with me to Paris- then a small village in France - several carts with its own personal library, and was horrified to discover that her husband, the king of France, can't, not only read, but also write, which she was quick to write to her father, Yaroslav the Wise. And she reproached him for sending her to this wilderness! This - real fact, there is a real letter from Princess Anna, here is a fragment from it: “Father, why do you hate me? And he sent me to this dirty village, where there was nowhere to wash...” And the Russian-language one, which she brought with her to France, still serves as a sacred attribute on which all French presidents take the oath, and previously kings swore an oath.
When the Crusades began crusaders struck both the Arabs and the Byzantines by the fact that they reeked “like homeless people,” as they would say now. West became for the East synonymous with savagery, dirt and barbarism, and indeed he was this barbarism. Returning to Europe, the pilgrims tried to introduce the observed custom of washing in the bathhouse, but it didn’t work out that way! Since the 13th century baths already official hit banned, allegedly as a source of debauchery and infection!
As a result, the 14th century was probably one of the most terrible in the history of Europe. It flared up quite naturally plague epidemic. Italy and England lost half of their population, Germany, France, Spain - more than a third. How much the East lost is not known for certain, but it is known that the plague came from India and China through Turkey and the Balkans. She only went around Russia and stopped at its borders, exactly in the place where they were distributed baths. This is very similar to biological warfare those years.
Edited 05/30/2012
Probably, many, having read foreign literature, and especially historical books by foreign authors about ancient Rus', were horrified by the dirt and stench that reigned in Russian villages in those distant times. This template has become so ingrained in our consciousness that even modern Russian films about ancient Rus' are filmed according to this obviously false scenario, and continue to deceive us about the fact that our ancestors lived in dugouts or in the forest in swamps and did not wash for years , wore rags, and as a result they often got sick and died in middle age, rarely reaching 40 years of age.
When someone wants to describe the supposedly “real” past of another people, and especially the enemy, and it is precisely such “barbarians” that the entire supposedly “civilized” world sees us, then by composing a fictitious past, they are, of course, writing off themselves, since the other they cannot even know, either from their own experience or from the experience of their ancestors.
But lies always come to light sooner or later, and we now know for certain who was really unwashed and who smelled clean and beautiful. And enough facts from the past have accumulated for an inquisitive reader to evoke appropriate images and personally experience all the delights of a supposedly pure Europe, and decide for himself where the truth is and where the lies are.
So, one of the first mentions of the Slavs that Western historians give notes how MAIN feature precisely the Slavic tribes are what they "pouring water", that is, they wash themselves in running water, while all other peoples of Europe washed themselves in tubs, basins, and bathtubs. Even Herodotus in the 5th century BC. speaks of the inhabitants of the steppes of the northeast that they pour water on stones and steam in huts. Washing under a stream seems so natural to us that we do not seriously suspect that we are almost the only, or at least one of the few, peoples in the world who do exactly this.
Foreigners coming to Russia in the 5th-8th centuries noted the cleanliness and neatness of Russian cities. Here the houses did not stick to each other, but stood wide apart, there were spacious, ventilated courtyards. People lived in communities, in peace, which means that parts of the streets were common and therefore no one, like in Paris, could throw a bucket of slop just onto the street, demonstrating at the same time that only my house is private property, and don’t give a damn about the rest!
I repeat once again that the custom "pouring water" previously in Europe distinguished precisely our ancestors of the Slavic-Aryans, was assigned specifically to them as a distinctive feature, which clearly had some kind of ritual ancient meaning. And this meaning, of course, was transmitted to our ancestors many thousands of years ago through the commandments of the gods, namely the god Perun, who flew to our Earth 25,000 years ago, bequeathed: “Wash your hands after your deeds, for whoever does not wash his hands loses the power of God.”.
His other commandment reads: “Cleanse yourself in the waters of Iriy, which is a river flowing in the Holy Land, in order to wash your white body and sanctify it with God’s power.”. The most interesting thing is that these commandments work flawlessly for the Russian in the soul of a person. So any of us probably becomes disgusted and “the cats are scratching at our souls” when we feel dirty, or very sweaty after hard physical labor, or the summer heat, and we want to quickly wash off this dirt from ourselves and refresh ourselves under the streams of clean water. I am sure that we have a genetic dislike for dirt, and therefore we strive, even without knowing Perun’s commandment about washing our hands, always coming from the street, for example, to immediately wash our hands and wash ourselves in order to feel fresh and get rid of fatigue.
What was going on in supposedly enlightened and pure Europe at the beginning of the Middle Ages and, oddly enough, right up to the 18th century?
Having destroyed the culture of the ancient Etruscans (these Russians or Russes of Etruria) - the Russian people who in ancient times settled Italy and created a great civilization there, which proclaimed the cult of purity and had baths, around which a MYTH was created (my transcript by A.N. - we distorted or distorted the facts - MYTH) about the Roman Empire, which never existed, and whose monuments have survived to this day, the Jewish barbarians (and this was undoubtedly them and no matter what kind of people they covered for their vile purposes) enslaved Western Europe for many centuries with its lack of culture, dirt and depravity.
Europe hasn't washed itself for centuries!!!
We first find confirmation of this in the letters of Princess Anna, the daughter of Yaroslav the Wise, Prince of Kyiv in the 11th century AD. e.
By marrying his daughter to the French king Henry I, he allegedly strengthened his influence in “enlightened” Western Europe. In fact, it was prestigious for European kings to create alliances with Russia, since Europe was far behind in all respects, both cultural and economic, compared to Great Empire our ancestors. Princess Anna brought with her to Paris, then a small village in France, several convoys of her personal library, and was horrified to discover that her husband, the King of France, could not only read, but also write, which she was not slow in writing to her father, Yaroslav the Wise. And she reproached him for sending her to this wilderness! This is a real fact, there is a real letter Princess Anna: “Father, why do you hate me? And he sent me to this dirty village, where there was no place to wash myself.”. And the Bible that she brought with her to France, in Russian, still serves as an attribute on which all French presidents, and previously kings, take the oath.
European cities were drowning in sewage: “The French king Philip II Augustus, accustomed to the smell of his capital, fainted in 1185 when he stood at the palace, and carts passing by him exploded street sewage...”.
The historian Draper presented in his book A History of the Relations between Religion and Science a rather vivid picture of the conditions in which the people of Europe lived in the Middle Ages. Here are the main features of this picture: “The surface of the continent was then covered mostly impenetrable forests; There were monasteries and towns here and there.
In the lowlands and along the rivers there were swamps, sometimes stretching for hundreds of miles and emitting their poisonous miasma, which spread fevers. In Paris and London, houses were wooden, smeared with clay, covered with straw or reeds. There were no windows and, before the invention of sawmills, few houses had wooden floors... There were no chimneys. Such dwellings hardly had any protection from the weather. Gutters were not taken care of: rotting remains and rubbish were simply thrown out the door.
Cleanliness was completely unknown: high dignitaries, such as the Archbishop of Canterbury, were infested with insects.
The food consisted of rough plant products such as peas or even tree bark. In some places the villagers did not know bread, “Is it surprising after this,” the historian further notes , - that during the famine of 1030 human meat was fried and sold, or that in the famine of 1258 15 thousand people died of hunger in London?.
A certain Dionysius Fabricius, rector of the church in Fellin, in a collection he published about the history of Livonia, included a story related to the monks of the Falkenau monastery near Dorpat (now Tartu), the plot of which dates back to the 13th century. The monks of the newly founded Dominican monastery sought monetary subsidies from Rome, and supported their request with a description of their ascetic pastime: “every day, having gathered in a specially built room, they fire up the stove as hot as the heat can be tolerated, after which they undress, whip themselves with rods, and then douse themselves with ice water.” This is how they fight the carnal passions that tempt them. An Italian was sent from Rome to verify the truth of what was described. During a similar bath procedure, he almost gave his soul to God and quickly left for Rome, testifying there to the truth of the voluntary martyrdom of the monks, who received the requested subsidy.
When the Crusades began, the Crusaders amazed both the Arabs and the Byzantines with what they reeked of “like homeless people” as they would say now. The West appeared to the East as synonymous with savagery, dirt and barbarism, and indeed it was this barbarism. The pilgrims who returned to Europe tried to introduce the observed custom of washing in the bathhouse, but it didn’t work out that way! Since the 13th century, baths have already officially been banned by the Church as a source of debauchery and infection! So that the gallant knights and troubadours of that era emitted a stench for several meters around them. The ladies were no worse. You can still see in museums back scratchers made from expensive wood and ivory, as well as flea traps...
As a result, the 11th century was probably one of the most terrible in the history of Europe. Quite naturally, a plague epidemic broke out. Italy and England lost half of their population, Germany, France, Spain - more than a third. It is not known for certain how much the East lost, but it is known that the plague came from India and China through Turkey and the Balkans. She only went around Russia and stopped at its borders, exactly in the place where baths were common. It looks like biological warfare of those years.
I can talk about ancient Europe add about their hygiene and bodily cleanliness. Let it be known to you that the French invented perfume not to smell, but not to STINK! Yes exactly. According to one of the royals, or rather Sun King LouisXIV, a real Frenchman washes only twice in his life - at birth and before death. Only 2 times! Horrible! And I immediately remembered the supposedly unenlightened and uncultured Rus', in which every man had his own bathhouse, and at least once a week people washed in the bathhouses and never got sick. Since the bath, in addition to bodily cleanliness, also successfully clears illnesses. And our ancestors knew this very well and constantly used it.
Why, a civilized man, a Byzantine missionary Belisarius, having visited Novgorod land in 850 AD, wrote about the Slovenes and Rusyns: “The Orthodox Slovenians and Rusyns are wild people, and their lives are wild and godless. Men and girls naked, locking themselves together in a hotly heated hut and torturing their bodies, lashing themselves mercilessly with wooden rods, until exhaustion? and after jumping into an ice hole or a snowdrift and, having become cold, again went to the hut to torture his body.”.
How could this dirty, unwashed Europe know what a Russian bathhouse is? Until the 18th century, until the Russian Slavs taught “clean” Europeans how to make soap, they did not wash. Therefore, they constantly had epidemics of typhus, plague, cholera, smallpox, and so on. Marie Antoinette I washed my face only twice in my life: once before the wedding, the second time before the execution.
Why did Europeans buy silk from us? Yes, because there were no lice there. But by the time this silk reached Paris, a kilogram of silk was already worth a kilogram of gold. Therefore, only rich people could afford silk.
Patrick Suskind in his work “Perfume” he described how Paris of the 18th century “smelled”, but by the 11th century during the time of Queen Anna Yaroslavna, this passage will also have a very good example:
“In the cities of that time there was a stench almost unimaginable to us, modern people. The streets stank of manure, the courtyards stank of urine, the staircases stank of rotten wood and rat droppings, the kitchens of bad coal and lamb fat; the unventilated living rooms stank of caked dust, the bedrooms of dirty sheets, damp feather beds and the pungently sweet fumes of chamber pots. There was a smell of sulfur coming from the fireplaces, caustic alkalis from the tanneries, and released blood from the slaughterhouses. People stank of sweat and unwashed clothes; their mouths smelled like rotten teeth, their stomachs smelled like onion juice, and their bodies, as they grew old, began to smell like old cheese and sour milk and painful tumors. The rivers stank, the squares stank, the churches stank, the bridges and palaces stank. Peasants and priests, apprentices and masters' wives stank, everything stank nobility, even the king himself stank - he stank like a predatory beast, and the queen - like an old goat, winter and summer.< ... >Any human activity, both creative and destructive, every manifestation of nascent or dying life was accompanied by a stench.”
The Duke of Norfolk refused to bathe, allegedly out of religious belief. His body was covered with ulcers. Then the servants waited until his lordship was dead drunk, and barely washed him off.
In the "Courtesy Manual", published at the end of XVIII century (Manuel de civilite, 1782) it is formally prohibited to use water for washing, “for this makes the face more sensitive to cold in winter, and heat in summer”.
Queen of Spain Isabella of Castile proudly admitted that she washed only twice in her life - at birth and before the wedding!
Louis XIV(May 14, 1643 - September 1, 1715) washed only twice in his life - and then on the advice of doctors. The washing horrified the monarch so much that he swore off ever taking water treatments. Russian ambassadors to the court of Louis XIV, nicknamed the Sun King, wrote that their Majesty king of france “it stinks like a wild beast” !
Even accustomed to the constant stench that surrounded him from birth, the king PhilipII Once he fainted when he was standing at the window, and passing carts loosened a dense, multi-year layer of sewage with their wheels. By the way, this king died of... scabies! Dad died from it too ClementV II! A Clement V died of dysentery. One of the French princesses died, eaten by lice! No wonder they called it lice "God's pearls" and was considered a sign of holiness.
The famous French historian Fernand Braudel wrote in his book “Structures of Everyday Life”: “The chamber pots continued to be poured out of the windows, as they always had - the streets were cesspools. The bathroom was a rare luxury. Fleas, lice and bedbugs infested both London and Paris, both in the homes of the rich and in the houses of the poor.”.
The Louvre, the palace of the French kings, did not have a single toilet. They emptied themselves in the courtyard, on the stairs, on the balconies. When in “need”, guests, courtiers and kings either sat down on a wide window sill near an open window, or they were brought “night vases”, the contents of which were then poured out at the back doors of the palace. The same thing happened in Versailles, for example, during the time of Louis XIV, life under whom is well known thanks to the memoirs of the Duke de Saint-Simon. The court ladies of the Palace of Versailles, right in the middle of a conversation (and sometimes even during mass in a chapel or cathedral), stood up and relaxed, in a corner, relieved their minor and not so much need.
There is a well-known story that Versailles guides love to tell, how one day the Spanish ambassador arrived to the king and, going into his bedchamber (it was in the morning), found himself in an awkward situation - his eyes watered from the royal amber. The ambassador politely asked to move the conversation to the park and jumped out of the royal bedroom as if scalded. But in the park, where he hoped to breathe in fresh air, the unlucky ambassador simply fainted from the stench - the bushes in the park served as a permanent latrine for all the courtiers, and the servants poured sewage there.
I’ll say a few more words about the morals of the barbaric and wild West.
The Sun King, like all other kings, allowed his courtiers to use any corner of Versailles as toilets.
To this day, the parks of Versailles stink of urine on a warm day. The walls of the castles were equipped with heavy curtains, and blind niches were made in the corridors. But wouldn’t it be easier to equip some toilets in the yard or just run to the park described above? No, this never even occurred to anyone, because diarrhea stood guard over tradition. Merciless, inexorable, capable of taking anyone, anywhere by surprise. Given the appropriate quality of medieval food and water, diarrhea was a constant phenomenon. The same reason can be traced in the fashion of those years (XII-XV centuries) for men's trousers, consisting of only vertical ribbons in several layers.
In 1364, a man named Thomas Dubuisson was given the task “to paint bright red crosses in the garden or corridors of the Louvre to warn people to shit there - so that people would consider such things to be sacrilege in these places”. Getting to the throne room was a very messy journey in itself. “In and around the Louvre,” wrote in 1670 a man who wanted to build public toilets, - inside the courtyard and in its surroundings, in the alleys, behind the doors - almost everywhere you can see thousands of piles and smell the most different smells of the same thing - a product of the natural waste of those who live here and come here every day". Periodically, all its noble residents left the Louvre so that the palace could be washed and ventilated.
And in a book for reading on the history of the Middle Ages by Sergei Skazkin about the culture of Europeans we read the following: “Residents of the houses threw out the entire contents of buckets and tubs directly onto the street, to the grief of an unwary passerby. Stagnant slops formed stinking puddles, and the restless city pigs, of which there were a great many, completed the picture.”.
Unsanitary conditions, disease and hunger - this is the face of medieval Europe. Even the nobility in Europe could not always eat enough. Out of ten children, it’s good if two or three survived, but a third of women died during the first birth. Lighting - in best case scenario wax candles, and usually oil lamps or torches. Hungry faces, disfigured by smallpox, leprosy and, later, syphilis, looked out from windows covered with bull blisters.
The gallant knights and beautiful ladies of that era emitted a stench for several meters around them. You can still see in museums back scratchers made from expensive wood and ivory, as well as flea traps. Saucers were also placed on tables so that people could culturally suppress lice. But in Rus' they didn’t put saucers. But not out of stupidity, but because there was no need for it!
London victorian era wallowed in sewage and stench as 24 tons of horse manure and one and a half million cubic feet of human faeces flowed into the Thames daily through the sewer canals before a closed sewer system was built. And this was at a time when Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were chasing Professor Moriarty around London.
In the Netherlands, considered the most advanced power in a technical sense, and where the Russian Tsar Peter came to study, “in 1660 people still sat down to eat without washing their hands, no matter what they were doing”. Historian Paul Zumthor, author of " Daily life Holland in the time of Rembrandt,” notes: “the chamber pot could sit under the bed for an eternity before the maid took it away and poured the contents into the channel”. “Public baths were practically unknown, continues Zyumtor. — Back in 1735, there was only one such establishment in Amsterdam. The sailors and fishermen, thoroughly smelling of fish, spread an unbearable stench. The personal toilet was purely decorative.”.
“Water baths insulate the body, but weaken the body and enlarge the pores, so they can cause illness and even death.” , - stated in one medical treatise of the 15th century. In the XV-XVI centuries. Rich townspeople washed themselves once every six months in the 17th-18th centuries. they stopped taking baths altogether. Sometimes water procedures were used only for medicinal purposes. They carefully prepared for the procedure and gave an enema the day before.
Most aristocrats saved themselves from dirt with the help of a scented cloth with which they wiped their bodies. It was recommended to moisten the armpits and groin with rose water. Men wore bags of aromatic herbs between their shirts and vests. Ladies used exclusively aromatic powder.
It is not difficult to guess that the church of that time stood with a wall in defense of dirt and against caring for one’s body. The Church in the Middle Ages assumed that “If a person is baptized, that is, sprinkled with holy water, then he is clean for the rest of his life. That is, it means there is no need to wash.”. And if a person does not wash, then fleas and lice appear, which carry all diseases: typhoid, cholera, plague. That's why Europe was dying out, in addition to wars, and also from diseases. And wars and diseases, as we see, were provoked by the same church and its instrument of subjugation of the masses - religion!
Before the victory of Christianity, more than a thousand baths operated in Rome alone. The first thing Christians did when they came to power was to close all the baths. People of that time were suspicious of washing their bodies: nudity was a sin, and it was cold and you could catch a cold.
In Rus', since ancient times, great attention has been paid to maintaining cleanliness and neatness. Residents of Ancient Rus' were aware of hygienic care for the skin of the face, hands, body, and hair. Russian women knew very well that yogurt, sour cream, cream and honey, fats and oils soften and restore the skin of the face, neck, hands, making it elastic and velvety; Rinse your hair well with eggs, and rinse it with herbal infusion. So they found the necessary funds and took them from surrounding nature: They collected herbs, flowers, fruits, berries, roots, the medicinal and cosmetic properties of which they knew.
Our ancestors knew the properties of herbal remedies perfectly, so they were mainly used for cosmetic purposes. They were also well known medicinal properties wild herbs. They collected flowers, grass, berries, fruits, and plant roots and skillfully used them to prepare cosmetics.
For blush and lipstick, they used raspberry and cherry juice, and rubbed their cheeks with beets. Black soot was used to blacken the eyes and eyebrows, and sometimes brown paint was used. To make the skin white, they used wheat flour or chalk. Plants were also used to dye hair: for example, onion peels were used to dye hair brown, and saffron and chamomile were used to dye hair light yellow. Scarlet dye was obtained from barberry, crimson from young apple tree leaves, green from onion feathers, nettle leaves, yellow from saffron leaves, sorrel and alder bark, etc.
Household cosmetics among Russian women were based on the use of products of animal origin (milk, curdled milk, sour cream, honey, egg yolk, animal fats) and various plants(cucumbers, cabbage, carrots, beets, etc.), burdock oil was used for hair care.
In ancient Rus', great attention was paid to hygiene and skin care. Therefore, cosmetic “rituals” were most often carried out in a bathhouse. Russian baths with a kind of biting massage with oak or birch brooms were especially common. To cure skin and mental illnesses, ancient healers recommended pouring herbal infusions onto hot stones. To soften and nourish the skin, it is good to apply honey to it.
In the baths, the skin was treated, it was cleaned with special scrapers, and massaged with aromatic balms. Among the bathhouse attendants there were even hair pullers, and they performed this procedure without pain.
In Rus', weekly bathing was common. In the arsenal of prevention of hardening of a reasonable hygiene system, the Russian bath has been in first place from time immemorial.
Being clean in body and healthy in soul, our ancestors were also famous for their longevity, which in our times not everyone even strives for, realizing that the environment is poisoned, food is GMO, medicines are poison, and in general, living a lot is harmful because life dying...
Also, I would like to give some examples from the recent past. From our modern times, so to speak...
On the Internet, we came across memories of eyewitnesses about what they saw hand washing abroad, which for them is considered the norm: “Recently I had to observe the family of a Russian emigrant who married a Canadian. Their son, who doesn’t even speak Russian, washes his hands under an open tap like his mother, while his father plugs the sink and splashes in his own dirty foam. Washing under the stream seems so natural to Russians that we do not seriously suspect that we were almost the only (at least one of the few) people in the world who did just that.”.
Soviet people in the 60s, when the first bourgeois films appeared on the screens, were shocked when they saw how a beautiful French actress got up from the bath and put on a robe without washing off the foam. Horror!
But Russians experienced real animal horror en masse when they began to travel abroad in the 90s, go on visits and watch how the owners, after dinner, plugged the sink with a stopper, put dirty dishes in it, poured liquid soap, and then from this sink, infested with slop and uncleanliness, they simply pulled out the plates and, without rinsing them under running water, put them on the dryer! Some had a gag reflex, because they immediately imagined that everything they had previously eaten was on the same dirty plate. When friends in Russia were told about this, people simply refused to believe, they believed that it was some kind of special case the uncleanliness of a single European family.
International journalist Vsevolod Ovchinnikov has a book “Sakura and Oak”, in which he described the custom described above that he witnessed during his stay in England and amazed him: “the owner of the house where the journalist was staying, after the feast, dipped glasses into the sink with soapy water and put it on the dryer without rinsing". Ovchinnikov writes that at that moment he attributed the owner’s action to intoxication, however, later he was convinced that this method of washing was typical for England.
Among other things, I was personally in England and was convinced that hot water for the British it is truly a luxury. Since the centralized water supply provides only cold water, then hot water is heated through small 3-5 liter electric boilers. These boilers were in our kitchen and shower. In our Slavic dishwashing, when running water runs out, hot water quickly runs out, and often the boiler cannot cope with our needs, we had to use detergents to then wash the dishes cold water. This was in 1998-9, but even now nothing has changed there.
A few words about longevity. No matter how Western historians (Iz-TORY) try to humiliate us and attribute to our ancestors an early death from all sorts of diseases and undeveloped medicine - all this is just nonsense, with which they are trying to hide the real past of the Slavic-Aryans, and to impose the achievements of modern medicine, which supposedly prolonged the lifespan of the Russians, who, even before the Jewish coup of 1917, died en masse before reaching old age, not to mention extreme old age.
The truth is that it is natural and normal minimum period Our ancestors considered the age of one circle of life, namely 144 years. Some lived more than one circle of life, but maybe two or three. Many of us in our family had great-great-grandfathers and great-great-grandmothers who lived longer than 80-90 years and this was considered normal. And in the family books there are records of 98, 160, 168, 196 years of life.
If anyone is interested in the recipe for longevity, it is simple and I personally came to it a long time ago, thinking about why our old pensioners die early. And the other day I found confirmation of my guess from other people, and the recipe for longevity exactly coincides with my guesses.
I don’t know how to make secrets, I don’t like them and I won’t - that’s not the Russian way!
By the way, I give a recipe for identifying people of Jewish nationality in your environment, this is especially evident in childhood, in children's games. So, a Russian person does not make secrets - he is open in soul, he shares what he knows or has with a completely pure heart and thoughts, and does not elevate the possession of some thing or knowledge into a cult. On the contrary, Jewish children are brought up in a spirit of superiority over others, they are not allowed to open their souls to others. Therefore, you can often hear from such children something like this: “I won’t tell you - it’s a secret!”. And at the same time, they begin to tease the curiosity of other children, provoking them to receive financial rewards for revealing the secret. Take a closer look at children, at their games - it all manifests itself at the genetic level!!!
So, it is as simple as it is difficult for many of us - it is work!
Neither pills nor healthy image life, although it is inextricably linked with work, since those who work lead a healthy lifestyle - they simply have no time to have fun and spend time idle. Therefore, instead of stadiums and gyms, it is better to work for the benefit of your clan (family), putting your soul into the works of your labor and longevity will be much more real for you than the imposed meaningless wasting of life, which leads only to one thing - to early old age through the wear and tear of your body and, as a consequence, to early death. I hope this is for everyone reasonable person This is already an obvious fact!
After all, as our ancestors said - “while we work, we live”! On the contrary, what kills old people is not work, from which we want to limit them, taking away their responsibilities around the house and running the household, while wanting to spare them and give them more time for rest, but inactivity.
Most likely, this is precisely why the state pension system was introduced, in order to quickly bring people into a state of lack of demand, professional unfitness, and thereby deliberately provoke death not through the natural aging of the body, but from inaction, from uselessness to this society and their family.
The fact that the descendants of the great Slavic-Aryans are still alive, despite the fact that they were most exposed to wars and genocide in the past, is not due to any special Slavic fertility, but due to cleanliness and health. We were always bypassed or little affected by all the epidemics of plague, cholera, and smallpox. And our task is to preserve and increase the heritage given by our ancestors!
We need to be proud that we are Russians, and thanks to the neatness of our Russian mothers, we grew up clean!
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All adherents of Russophobia love to appeal to Lermontov’s poem “All Russians are unscrupulous pigs,” written by him after being offended by the state system Russian Empire, whose repressive apparatus put a little pressure on the poet. I.R. Shafarevich also noted that this poem is studied several times in school course, in order to consolidate the stereotype about the uncleanliness of Rus' and, consequently, the Russian people. This stereotypical myth is driven into people's heads with extraordinary persistence.
"All Russians are unscrupulous pigs"
Goodbye, unwashed Russia,
Country of slaves, country of masters,
And you, blue uniforms,
And you, their devoted people.
Perhaps behind the wall of the Caucasus
I'll hide from your pashas,
From their all-seeing eye,
From their all-hearing ears.
M. Yu. Lermontov.
I think there is no need to remind you that this myth has already been debunked several times. You just have to remember the thesis about baths and perfumes. Baths were (and are) in Rus', and perfumery - in " enlightened Europe"But for some reason, home-grown liberals get into a puddle over and over again, expressing the myth of “unwashed Russia.” They forget that in any remote village in Rus' there are always bathhouses. And our land is not deprived of water, unlike Europe. Wash as much as you want. But in Europe there has always been a problem with water. That’s why the British still wash their faces with the drain plugged. For the sake of economy, they sacrifice hygiene.
“And they do not have baths, but they make themselves a house made of wood and caulk its cracks with greenish moss. In one of the corners of the house they build a fireplace made of stones, and at the very top, in the ceiling, they open a window for the smoke to escape. There is always a container in the house for water, which is poured over the hot fireplace, and then hot steam rises. And in each hand, a bunch of dry branches, which, waving around the body, set the air in motion, attracting it to themselves... And then the pores on their body open and flow with water. They have rivers of sweat, and on their faces there is joy and a smile." Abu Obeid Abdallahala Bekri, Arab traveler and scientist.
Repeating the lines of the classic, the image of an unkempt and bearded man in a zipun appears before your eyes... Is the myth about traditional Russian untidiness true? There is an opinion that in Rus' people wore dirty, unwashed clothes, and the habit of washing came to us from the so-called civilized Europe. Is there much truth in this statement? Is this how it really happened?
Baths in Russia have been known since ancient times. The chronicler Nestor dates them to the first century AD. , when the Holy Apostle Andrew traveled along the Dnieper, preaching the Gospel word, and reached much north of it, “to where Novgorod is now,” where he saw a miracle - those steaming in a bathhouse. In it, according to his description, everyone turned into boiled crayfish in color. “Having heated up the stove in the wooden baths,” says Nestor, “they entered there naked and doused themselves with water; then they took rods and began to beat themselves, and they flogged themselves so much that they barely came out alive; but then, having doused themselves with cold water, they came to life. This is what they did weekly, and, moreover,” Nestor concludes, “not having been tormented by anyone, they tormented themselves, and did not perform ablution, but torture.”
The same evidence can be found in Herodotus. He noted that the inhabitants of the ancient Russian steppes always had among their settlements special huts with an ever-burning fire, where they heated stones red-hot and poured water on them, scattered hemp seed and washed their bodies in hot steam.
Personal hygiene of the population in medieval Europe practically did not exist, since no attention was paid to the body and care for it for religious reasons. In the 11th century, Pope Clement III issued a decree by virtue of which it was forbidden to bathe or even wash your face on Sundays. Among the Slavs, it was even customary to give birth not in the house, but in a well-heated bathhouse, since they believed that birth, like death, violates the border of invisible worlds. That is why women in labor moved away from people so as not to harm anyone. The birth of a child among the ancient Slavs was accompanied by washing and even steaming in a bathhouse. At the same time they said: “Lord, bless the steam and the broom.”
In Russian fairy tales there is often a plot with the healing of the hero alive and dead water. Ilya Muromets, who lay motionless for thirty years, gained strength from her and defeated evil - the Nightingale the Robber.
In the countries of Western Europe at that time there were no baths, since the church, considering the ancient Roman baths a source of debauchery, banned them. And in general, she recommended washing as little as possible so as not to be distracted from work and serving the church.
The chronicle of 966 says that in the charter of the Novgorod and Kyiv prince Vladimir the Red Sun, baths were called institutions for the infirm. Perhaps these were the first unique hospitals in Rus'.
In ancient times, everyone loved baths, for which the Russian prince once paid. Benedict, the leader of the Hungarian army, besieging the city of Galich in 1211, captured Prince Roman Igorevich, who was carelessly washing himself.
In "civilized" Europe they did not even know about the existence of such convenient way maintain hygiene until, in the 13th century, the Crusaders brought an overseas amusement from the Holy Land - oriental baths. However, by the time of the Reformation, baths were again eradicated as a source of debauchery.
Few people know how False Dmitry was convicted of not being Russian, and therefore an impostor? It’s very simple - he didn’t go to the bathhouse. And at that time only a European could do this.
A native of Courland, Jacob Reitenfels, who lived in Moscow in 1670-1673, notes in notes about Russia: “Russians consider it impossible to form friendship without inviting them to the bathhouse and then eating at the same table.”
Who was right was shown in the 14th century by the terrible plague epidemic “Black Death”, which destroyed almost half of the population of Europe. Although the plague came from the East, in particular from India, it bypassed Russia.
The Venetian traveler Marco Polo cites the following facts: “Venetian women wore expensive silks, furs, flaunted jewelry, but did not wash, and their underwear was either terribly dirty or had none at all.”
The famous researcher Leonid Vasilyevich Milov writes in his book “The Great Russian Plowman”: “A diligent peasant wife washed her children two or three times every week, changed their linen every week, and aired some of the pillows and feather beds in the air, beat them out.” A weekly bath was mandatory for the whole family. No wonder people said: “The bathhouse soars, the bathhouse rules. The bathhouse will fix everything.”
The reformer Peter the Great encouraged the construction of baths: no duties were charged for their construction. “Elixirs are good, but a bath is better,” he said.
For many centuries, there was a bathhouse in almost every courtyard in Russia. The famous French writer Théophile Gautier noted in his book “Travel through Russia” that “under his shirt the Russian man is pure in body.”
At the same time, in the so-called advanced and tidy Europe, even crowned heads were not ashamed of their neglect of washing. Queen Isabella of Castile (who ruled Spain in the second half of the 15th century) admitted that she washed only twice in her entire life - at birth and before her wedding.
There is information that the residents of Reitlingen convinced Emperor Frederick III not to come to visit them. The emperor did not listen and almost drowned in the mud along with his horse. This was in the 15th century, and the reason for this trouble was that residents threw waste and all slops out of the windows directly onto the heads of passers-by, and the streets were practically not cleaned.
Here is a description by a Russian historian of the inhabitants of a European city of the 18th century: “They rarely wash. In fact, there is nowhere to wash. There are no public baths in sight. The high hairstyles of ladies and gentlemen are an excellent incubator for fleas. They did not know soap, as a result of all this perfume was invented to eliminate unpleasant odors from bodies and clothes."
While Russia was regularly washing itself, “unwashed” Europe was inventing ever stronger perfumes, as Patrick Suskind’s famous book “Perfume” tells. The ladies at the court of Louis the Sun (a contemporary of Peter the Great) were constantly itching. Elegant flea traps and ivory scratchers can be seen today in many French museums.
The edict of the French king Louis XIV stated that when visiting the court, one should not spare strong perfume so that its aroma drowns out the stench from bodies and clothes.
Every cloud has a silver lining; perfumes have appeared in Europe that are already used for other purposes than their intended purpose - to drive away bedbugs and eliminate unpleasant odors.
The notes of the German traveler Airaman, who walked on foot from Konigsberg to Narva and from Narva to Moscow, say: “I want to briefly recall the bathhouses of the Muscovites or their washing habits, because we don’t know... In general, in no country you will find that washing is valued as much as in this Moscow, women find their highest pleasure in it.”
The German doctor Zwierlein wrote in 1788 in his book “A Doctor for Lovers of Beauty or easy remedy become handsome and be healthy throughout the whole body": "Whoever washes his face, head, neck and chest with water more often will not have flux, swelling, as well as toothache and ear pain, runny nose and consumption. In Russia, these diseases are completely unknown, because Russians from birth begin to get used to washing themselves with water." It should be noted that only rich people could afford books at that time; what was going on among the poor, who had no one to teach them how to wash!
Russian baths began to spread throughout the world after the War of 1812. Napoleonic army consisted of soldiers different countries Thus, warming up during frosts in the bathhouse, they brought the custom of steaming to their countries. In 1812, the first Russian bathhouse opened in Berlin, later in Paris, Bern and Prague.
The book “True, Convenient and Cheap Means Used in France for the Extermination of Bedbugs,” published in Europe in 1829, says: “Bedbugs have an extremely fine sense of smell, therefore, in order to avoid bites, you need to rub yourself with perfume. The smell of a rubbed body will make you run away with perfume.” bedbugs for a while, but soon, driven by hunger, they overcome their aversion to smells and return to suck the body with even greater ferocity than before.” This book was very popular in Europe, but Russia did not encounter a similar problem, since it constantly went to the bathhouse.
IN late XVI In the 2nd century, the Portuguese physician Antonio Nunez Ribero Sanches published in Europe the book “Respectful Essays on Russian Baths,” where he writes: “My sincere desire extends only to showing the superiority of the Russian Baths over those that were used in ancient times by the Greeks and Romans and over those now in use among the Turks, both to maintain health and to cure many diseases."
Many Europeans noted the Russians’ passion for taking steam baths.
“Russian peasant,” noted in encyclopedic dictionary“The Great Brockhaus,” published in Amsterdam and Leipzig, “thanks to its favorite bathhouse, was significantly ahead of its European counterparts in terms of concern for clean skin.”
In the book "Medical and topographical information about St. Petersburg", published in early XIX centuries in many European countries, it is said: “There is no people in the world who use steam baths as often as Russians. Having become accustomed from infancy to being in a steam bath at least once a week, Russians can hardly do without it.”
The luxurious Sandunov baths, notes Gilyarovsky, a researcher of Moscow life, were visited by both Griboyedov’s and Pushkin’s Moscow, the one that gathered in the salon of the brilliant Zinaida Volkonskaya and in the prestigious English Club. While telling the story about the baths, the writer quotes the words of the old actor Ivan Grigorovsky: “I saw Pushkin... I loved to take a hot steam bath.”
German hygienist Max Ploten draws attention to the fact that the Russian bathhouse began to spread in Europe, especially in Germany. “But we Germans,” he writes, “using this healing remedy, never even mention its name, rarely remember that this step forward in cultural development owe it to our eastern neighbor."
In the 19th century, Europe nevertheless realized the need for regular hygiene. Founded in Berlin in 1889 German society people's baths." The motto of the society was: "Every German has a bath every week." However, by the beginning of the First World War, there were only 224 baths in all of Germany. Unlike Germany, in Russia there were already early XVIII century, in Moscow alone there were 1,500 baths in private courtyards and city estates, as well as 70 public ones.
This is how long Europe's path to understanding the need for personal hygiene was. It was the Russians who played a huge role in instilling in Europeans a love of cleanliness. And today the myth is cultivated about an unwashed, uncivilized Russia, which taught Europeans about personal hygiene. As we see, this myth is refuted by the history of our country.
Yes, in Russia there were no such hygiene standards at all times global problems as in Europe, which for this reason was called the unwashed. As you know, medieval Europeans neglected personal hygiene, and some were even proud of the fact that they washed only two, or even once, in their lives. Surely you would like to know a little more about how Europeans maintained hygiene and who were called “God’s pearls”.
Don't steal, don't kill, don't wash
And it would be fine if only firewood. The Catholic Church forbade any ablutions except those that occurred during baptism (which was supposed to wash the Christian once and for all) and before the wedding. All this, of course, had nothing to do with hygiene. It was also believed that when the body is immersed in water, especially hot water, pores open through which water enters the body, which then does not find a way out. Therefore, supposedly the body becomes vulnerable to infections. This is understandable, because everyone washed in the same water - from the cardinal to the cook. So after water procedures, Europeans really got sick. And strongly.
Louis XIV washed only twice in his life. And after each one he grew so sick that the courtiers prepared a will. The same “record” is held by Queen Isabella of Castile, who was terribly proud that water touched her body for the first time - at baptism, and the second time - before the wedding.
The Church prescribed to take care not of the body, but of the soul, therefore, for hermits, dirt was a virtue, and nakedness was a shame (seeing a body, not only someone else’s, but also one’s own, is a sin). Therefore, if we washed ourselves, we did so in our shirts (this habit will continue until late XIX century).
Lady with a dog
Lice were called “God’s pearls” and were considered a sign of holiness. The troubadours in love removed fleas from themselves and planted hearts on the lady, so that the blood, mixed in the stomach of the insect, would unite the hearts of the sweet couple. Despite all their “holiness,” insects still bothered people. That is why everyone had a flea trap or a small dog (in the case of ladies) with them. So, dear girls, when carrying around a pocket dog in a pink blanket, remember where the tradition came from.
They got rid of lice differently. They soaked a piece of fur in blood and honey and then placed it in their hair. Smelling the smell of blood, the insects would rush to the bait and get stuck in the honey. They also wore silk underwear, which, by the way, became popular precisely because of its “slipperiness.” God's pearls could not cling to such smooth fabric. That's what! In the hope of saving themselves from lice, many practiced a more radical method - mercury. It was rubbed into the scalp and sometimes eaten. True, it was primarily people who died from this, not lice.
In 1911, archaeologists unearthed ancient buildings made of baked bricks. These were the walls of the Mohenjo-Daro fortress - ancient city Indus Valley, which arose around 2600 BC. e. Strange openings along the perimeter of the buildings turned out to be toilets. The oldest ever found.
Then the Romans will have toilets, or latrines. Neither in Mohenjo-Daro, nor in the Queen of Waters ( Ancient Rome), by the way, they did not imply privacy. Seated on their “pushrooms,” located opposite each other along the perimeter of the hall (similar to the way seats in the subway are arranged today), the ancient Romans indulged in conversations about Stoicism or Seneca’s epigrams.
At the end of the 13th century, a law was passed in Paris that when pouring a chamber pot out of a window, one must shout: “Caution, water!”
In Medieval Europe there were no toilets at all. Only among the highest nobility. And then very rarely and the most primitive ones. They say that the French royal court periodically moved from castle to castle because there was literally nothing to breathe in the old one. Human waste was everywhere: at doors, on balconies, in courtyards, under windows. Given the quality of medieval food and unsanitary conditions, diarrhea was common - you simply couldn’t make it to the toilet.
At the end of the 13th century, a law was passed in Paris that when pouring a chamber pot out of a window, one must shout: “Caution, water!” Even the fashion for wide-brimmed hats appeared supposedly only to protect expensive clothes and wigs from what flew from above. According to the descriptions of many guests of Paris, for example Leonardo da Vinci, there was a terrible stench on the streets of the city. What is there in the city - in Versailles itself! Once there, the people tried not to leave until they met the king. There were no toilets, so the smell of “little Venice” was not at all like roses. Louis XIV himself, however, had a water closet. The Sun King could sit on it, even receiving guests. To be present at the toilet of high-ranking persons was generally considered “honoris causa” (especially honorable).
The first public toilet in Paris appeared only in the 19th century. But it was intended exclusively... for men. In Russia, public restrooms appeared under Peter I. But also only for courtiers. True, both sexes.
And 100 years ago, the Spanish campaign to electrify the country began. It was called simply and clearly - “Toilet”. In Spanish it means "unity". Along with insulators, other earthenware products were also produced. The very ones whose descendants now stand in every home are toilets. The first toilet with a flush cistern was invented by the English royal courtier John Harington at the end of the 16th century. But the water closet was not popular - due to the high cost and lack of sewerage.
And tooth powder and a thick comb
If there were no such benefits of civilization as a basic toilet and bathhouse, then about toothbrush And there's no need to mention deodorant. Although sometimes they used brushes made from branches to clean their teeth. IN Kievan Rus- oak, in the Middle East and South Asia - from arak wood. In Europe they used rags. Or they didn’t even brush their teeth at all. True, the toothbrush was invented in Europe, or more precisely, in England. It was invented by William Addison in 1770. But mass production did not become widespread immediately - in the 19th century. It was then that tooth powder was invented.
What about toilet paper? Nothing, of course. In Ancient Rome, it was replaced by sponges soaked in salt water, which were attached to a long handle. In America - corn cobs, and among Muslims - plain water. In Medieval Europe and Rus', ordinary people used leaves, grass and moss. The nobility used silk rags.
It is believed that perfumes were invented only to drown out the terrible stench of the streets. Whether this is true or not is not known for certain. But the cosmetic product, which would now be called deodorant, appeared in Europe only in the 1880s. True, back in the 9th century, a certain Ziryab proposed the use of deodorant (apparently of his own production) in Moorish Iberia (part of modern France, Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar), but no one paid attention to this.
But already in ancient times, people understood: if you remove hair in the armpit, the smell of sweat will not be so strong. It's the same if you wash them. But in Europe, as we have already said, this was not practiced. As for depilation, hair on a woman's body did not irritate anyone until the 1920s. Only then did European ladies first think about whether to shave or not to shave.
