At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century the beach of Hungerburg (today’s Narva-Jõesuu) looked very different from today. The shoreline was lined with striped bathing cabins and special bathing machines used by visitors to enter the sea directly from a private cabin.

These bathing machines were small wooden cabins on wheels. Horses pulled them slowly into the water. Inside the cabin visitors could change clothes and then step into the sea using a small staircase. After bathing, the machine was pulled back to the shore.

The service was paid and mainly used by wealthier guests of the resort. At the time, social norms and religious customs did not allow women to change clothes in public, so these enclosed bathing machines provided privacy.

While such bathing facilities never became widespread in many resorts of the Russian Empire, Hungerburg became one of the places where they were particularly popular. The bathing cabins belonged to the resort’s founder Adolf Hahn and his partners.

The beach also featured simpler lockable cabins owned by local residents, where bathing equipment could be stored throughout the summer season.

Today replicas of historic bathing machines and beach cabins can be found in several locations across Narva-Jõesuu, reminding visitors of the era when the resort was known as Hungerburg, one of the most fashionable seaside resorts on the Baltic coast.