Medieval steam rooms
Public baths in the Middle Ages were veritable pleasure palaces: they were open to both sexes and people would bathe naked. The baths were large enough to accommodate several people at once. People would go there to wash, relax, eat, get shaved, pampered, massaged... and maybe more: prostitution was tolerated in these establishments. Beds were provided for "resting".
"You could hear people shouting and prancing about, to the extent that one wondered how the neighbors put up with it, how the law concealed it and how the ground supported it." These are the words of a witness at the trial of Jeanne Saignant, mistress of the steam rooms, sentenced to death by drowning in 1466 for the disturbances to public order noted in her establishment.
Eventually, the moral excesses became a cause of concern for the authorities and from the 15th century onwards steam rooms started to be regulated.
