Ένα άγνωστο μεταβυζαντινό λουτρό στην Άνω Πόλη της Θεσσαλονίκης
Part of : Το Αρχαιολογικό Έργο στη Μακεδονία και στη Θράκη ; Vol.12, No.1, 1998, pages 165-182
Issue:
Pages:
165-182
Parallel Title:
An unknown postbyzantine bath in Thessaloniki's upper town
Author:
Abstract:
The bath is at No. 7, Iokastis St. in the Upper Town in Thessaloniki. It is a rectangularstructure on an E-W axis with exterior dimensions of 12.00x4.90 m. Theinterior is divided into 3 adjoining rectangular chambers. The entrance is in the middleof the E end and leads into the first cool chamber, which is traversed by a passageleading to the next chamber to the W. On the N side of the passage is a lavatory andopposite, on the S side, an unidentified rectangular chamber. Further W, the tepid andhot chambers have a hypocaust, and jointed clay air-ducts in the thickness of the walls.In the walls of the two recesses in the hot chamber are the ends of metal pipes whichsupplied hot water to the interior of the bath. Two fragments of masonry with differentrelief vegetal ornaments done in the Islamic style on plaster mortar, which were foundto the W of the main entrance, originally adorned the superstructure and date thebuilding to 1500 or a little later. Along the W side of the hot chamber are two cisterns,which were not used as bathtubs. Inside the larger cistern survive traces of the housingof the metal boiler, from which boiling water was conveyed to the interior of the bathhouse.The smaller cistern to the N supplied the hot cistern with cold water. There is noevidence of how the cold water reached the smaller cistern. The furnace was locatedlow down in the middle of the W wall of the hot chamber, at the level of the hypocaustand under the site of the boiler. At the bottom of the masonry, which enclosed it, thereare 4 openings radiating out towards the hot chamber to distribute the hot air uniformlyinto the hypocaust. The furnace was accessible via an arched opening, which has notsurvived and was at the bottom of the W wall of the bath. To the W of, and in contactwith, the furnace there is a doorway, which was originally roofed with a high, widearch, where the stoker stood and worked. Part of the stone-paved courtyard was foundto the N of the bath.The W end of the bath, with the furnace and the cisterns, preserves all the featuresthat help one to understand the form and function of the bath, which very closely resemblesthe Byzantine bath on Mount Papikion (12th-13th c.). Regarding the Ottomanpublic baths in Thessaloniki, we have only a hazy picture of the form of the furnace,both because investigators do not discuss it fully in their articles and because it isdifficult to gain access to it today. While the typology of this particular bath is adaptedto that of the Byzantine models, with the standard succession of chambers from cool toincreasingly hot, the system of boiler and cisterns shows that it is clearly a hammam.The size of this bath, compared with that of the public and monastery baths of theMiddle Byzantine period, suggests that it may have been a single-sex public bath. Theneighbourhood in which it stood was the Moslem quarter around the Imaret of IshakPasha, a small district with about 160 Moslem inhabitants, which, together with others,replaced the Byzantine district of the Asomatoi. Since the double bath in TheotokopoulouSt. was operating in the same district in the same period, we do not knowwhether the bath in Ioakastis St. was another public bath, for use by one sex, orbelonged to the private villa of an Ottoman official.
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Subject (LC):
Keywords:
λουτρά, Θεσσαλονίκη, συνέδρια
Notes:
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