gradually became the preferred choice in much of the world. Efficiency and comfort increasingly outweighed the practical benefits of easy visual inspection. continues on the next page.
Despite these changes, shelf toilets never disappeared entirely. They can still be found in some older homes, apartment buildings, and public facilities across parts of Europe. For visitors unfamiliar with the design, encountering one can be surprising or even unsettling, particularly when it differs so dramatically from what they consider normal.
Yet these fixtures offer more than a moment of cultural confusion. They
