Turkish hamam next to the Delphinion

Take a walk along the avenue, past the Ionian Hall, and you will immediately notice a fairly large, well-preserved building. It is one of the best-preserved monuments in the entire city area: a Turkish bath built in the fifteenth century CE, following the Ottoman conquest of Balat.

The socle of the building consists of many large, repurposed architectural segments (spolia). Its entrance is located in a vestibule in the western part of the building, where 3 columns used to support a flat roof at an earlier stage. To the east lies the hot bathing section (sıcaklık), whose rooms used to have domes which have not been preserved. Multiple small rooms were grouped around a central, large room.

The outer walls of the bath had a marble facade. Inside, the ceilings were partially covered in stalactite vaulting (muqarnas), and some particularly detailed graffiti depicting ships can still be seen on the interior walls.

The medieval name of the bath must have been Lalaoğlu Hamamı, as a location description in the Ottoman register from the sixteenth century CE matches the building.

Text: Lisa Steinmann