International Sauna Association

The International Sauna Association (ISA) is an association of national and other sauna societies, organisations and private people. It was founded in 1958 with the office in Germany . After 20 years quite slow activities it was reborn in 1977 in Helsinki Finland and the office was agreed to be in Helsinki. The founding members were Austria , Germany , Finland and Japan and they are continuously members. Besides those there are 20 other members including all the important sauna countries. The President has been all these years from Finland. ISA and its members shall pursue the goal of publicizing the sauna and promoting its use on a global scale by rallying supporters of sauna activities in different countries. This goal is served e.g. by acceptance of the Definition of Sauna recorded in Aachen , Germany 1999 as well as promoting the scientific studies of the sauna from e.g. such viewpoints as social history, folklore, medicine and technology. A particular emphasis is given to the collection and compilation in archives of the results of such scientific studies as well as other written material on sauna.