Nudity in Czechia: The unwritten rules of saunas, beaches, and pools

Czechs tend to be pretty relaxed about nudity, which means if you come from a culture that views Speedo-wearing as the height of public indecency, you might want to skip the changing room at your local water park.

Where nudity gets most confusing for anyone who didn't grow up around sauna culture is deciphering the formal rules, individual pool and sauna regulations, and simply what people consider normal.

For anyone who has experienced the kind of casual nudity you see in Czech changing rooms, it would seem Czechs are oblivious to showing a little (or, in these cases, every last inch) of skin. But there are limits, and they're not always where you might expect them to be.

Last month in Boskovice, a town in South Moravia, a 58-year-old woman was reported to the police after appearing naked in public twice in the same weekend.

Over the course of a weekend, the woman was spotted sunbathing completely naked in a park near the town's "Mother and Child" sculpture. Municipal police intervened, but the following afternoon, the same woman appeared topless on Masaryk Square while a traditional fair was taking place. 

The incident prompted the usual tabloid fascination, with lawyers, mental health officials, and even sexologists weighing in. It also raises a useful question for those living here who may be confused or simply unaccustomed to the boundaries (or lack thereof) surrounding nudity.

Speaking to Novinky, lawyer Dagmar Raupachová points out that the country's relatively relaxed attitude toward nudity is fairly recent. In fact, swimming without a swimsuit was illegal in Czechoslovakia until 1983.

“Today, the puritanical era is over, and society is much more tolerant in this regard,” she said in response to the Boskovice case.

That doesn't mean, however, that Czech law has a blanket rule either permitting or banning public nudity. Topless sunbathing at a pool or pond generally doesn't result in sanctions, Raupachová said, but things can change if the behavior amounts to veřejné pohoršení, or public offense.

Prague municipal police spokesperson Irena Seifertová has previously explained that this requires the behavior to take place in public, genuinely offend more than two people who are present at the same time, and conflict with generally accepted standards of morality. A misdemeanor can result in a fine of up to CZK 5,000.

In more serious circumstances, police can consider whether behavior amounts to výtržnictví, or disorderly conduct, which can carry a sentence of up to two years. There are also separate provisions that can apply near schools and playgrounds if authorities believe the behavior threatens the moral development of children.

In other words, the law doesn't simply ask whether somebody was naked. It asks what they were doing, where they were doing it and how the circumstances affected other people.

Topless sunbathing at pools, ponds, and parks/green spaces generally doesn't result in sanctions. But a quiet park where people sunbathe is different from a busy square, playground, school area, or family event.

If you've come from a country where communal nudity is considered embarrassing, Czech swimming pools can take some getting used to. And the feeling isn't necessarily one-way.

In 2023, a public swimming pool in Prudnik, Poland, just five kilometers from the Czech border, put up a Czech-language notice asking visitors to stop walking around naked in the shared changing rooms. Polish officials said there was no separate changing area for adults and that children also used the facilities.

Some Czech visitors were genuinely surprised by the complaint. One Czech woman told Polish outlet NTO that people in Czechia generally aren't bothered by changing in front of children and that showering naked is simply more hygienic.

Polish visitors to Czech pools have experienced the reverse culture shock. One Polish resident described being surprised by seeing a Czech father showering alongside his young daughter while naked men were also using the facilities.

There isn't a Czech law requiring people to get naked in communal changing rooms, or a general rule saying they can't. What you can and can't do is largely determined by the individual facility's operating rules and, just as importantly, local expectations about privacy. Which brings us to saunas.

Czech sauna culture has its own set of unspoken rules, and here the expectation is often that you won't be wearing a swimsuit.

The reasoning is partly about hygiene and partly about how saunas are traditionally used. Pavel Hofrichter, a sauna expert, told Marianne that swimsuits can cause unpleasant skin problems and aren't appropriate for the high temperatures of a sauna.

“The skin needs to breathe in the sauna, the pores open.”

He noted that only a few countries, including Denmark, have a stronger tradition of wearing swimsuits in saunas. But even this isn't a hard-and-fast Czech rule. At Nuuk sauna, Natálie says the priority is making customers comfortable.

“We have a rule here that ‘you can go to the sauna even in a sweater.’”

She says people have very different attitudes toward nudity, and that mixed saunas can sometimes put women off because of unwanted attention.

“I often feel sorry that saunas are a bit sexualized here. I've talked to girls several times who don't want to go to the mixed sauna because the guys look at them lustfully.”

At the Kontejner Sauna in Jihlava, Katka Bedáňová takes the more traditional approach. If you're uncomfortable being naked, she suggests using a sheet.

The sheet, she says, also has a practical purpose.

“The sheet will cover what you need to cover, and it is also an important hygienic element. It simply separates your halves from the bench, on which other halves were sweating an hour ago.”

For newcomers, the best advice is simply to check the rules before you go. At some facilities, being naked is the expected behavior; at others, a towel or sheet is required outside the sauna itself.

The Czech attitude gets even less predictable when you move from being naked to deciding how much clothing is acceptable.

The debate over burkinis is a good example. In 2017, photographs of women wearing the full-body swimsuits at an aquapark near Prague sparked a discussion about whether they should be allowed. Some Czech pools banned them under their own rules, while others said a burkini made from appropriate swimwear material was simply another type of swimsuit.

The national hygiene regulations governing Czech swimming pools detail water quality, filtration, disinfection, and cleaning, but they don't prescribe a particular length or style of swimwear for adults. Individual pools can set additional requirements in their provozní řád, which is why rules can differ from one facility to another.

Hotel Step in Prague, for example, publishes a specific list of permitted swimwear and says other types are prohibited. Its rules include requirements concerning the type and cut of swimwear, even though those specifications aren't set out as a general adult dress code in the national hygiene regulations.

So if a pool tells you that your swimsuit isn't permitted "for hygiene reasons," the useful question is which rule are they referring to?

It may be a genuine requirement under Czech hygiene regulations. Or it may be a rule the pool has introduced itself as part of its operating conditions.

Czech naturism has a longer history than the 1983 change in swimming rules might suggest. Nudism spread to Czechoslovakia in the 1970s, inspired in part by Czechs who encountered the FKK movement in East Germany. One of the first places it took hold was Šeberák in Prague, where unofficial nudist gatherings attracted hundreds of people.

At the time, however, swimming without proper swimwear was still against the rules, and nudists risked being chased off by police. The movement gradually became more accepted, and today Czechia has more than 100 designated naturist beaches and swimming areas.

Prague still has several established swimming spots that invite you to bare all, including Hostivař Reservoir, which has a designated nudist beach at the quieter end of the lake. Along the Vltava, Branická pláž is another place for nude sunbathing.

Organized nude swimming has also existed in ordinary public swimming pools. Sokol Královské Vinohrady hosted a regular weekly naturist swim, with the Czech and Moravian Naturist Federation documenting a visit as late as 2022.

The tradition of organized nude swimming in Prague goes back even further, to events at the YMCA in the 1990s and later at other public pools.

With that in mind, check the signs, check the rules, and, when in doubt, follow the locals. Go native, go nude, or just keep your towel handy.