A TURKISH Internet site says, “If you ask a foreigner in Turkey what comes to mind when they hear the words Ottoman and Turkey, most will say, Turkish baths or hamams.”
Most tourists coming to Cyprus – and many Cypriots themselves – would have little idea of the presence of hamams on the island. Yet archaeologist and historian Anna Marangou told the Sunday Mail this week that Cyprus’ Turkish baths, created over the 307-year rule of the Ottoman Turks, are actually of significant historical fame.
With the settling of Ottoman Turks on the island, hamams were a necessity for Turkish communities; they have actually been used by historians to determine where those communities lived on the island.
The Mehmet Bey Ebubekir hamam in the centre of Paphos and the Hasan Ağa Tekke and Bath in Kato Paphos are just two such examples, and although one has been completely renovated by a group of archaeologists with the help of the Paphos Municipality and funding by the EU, the other is now a festering remnant of a great empire, a foul-smelling ruined home for pigeons.
“The Mehmet Bey Ebukebir bath is an ancient monument,” Marangou said.
“We know it was built in the 16th century by Mehmet Bey Ebubekir, who was the governor of the Paphos district. He built the Turkish baths in 1592, and it is thought that it could have been built over an existing crusader Lusignan palace.
“It’s a question often asked by archaeologists because we have found remnants of what could have been just that – but it’s a classic Turkish bath complex with it’s trademark dome, its rooms, and there was a fountain in the centre of the building that disappeared at some stage in its long history.”
Marangou said the building belonged to the Antiquities Department and was being restored by a group of archaeologists with the help of Paphos Municipality, with the aim of turning it into a museum depicting the history and evolution of Turkish baths on the island through the years.
“The Antiquities Department gave us the go-ahead to restore the building. The work was expected to be completed this week and it will be turned into an exhibition hall for the monument’s history and the history of other Turkish baths on the island,” she said.
“It will be a permanent exhibition showing visitors how the hamam was used and we will also be exhibiting objects used at the time as well as a collection of the cloths used by the women visiting the hamam.
“We will be explaining the concept of the Turkish baths as well as that of Greek and Roman monuments like the ones in Salamina in the north, the building’s evolution from mediaeval times to this day.”
Marangou said restoring the building had been a monumental and costly task since it had sustained damage from humidity since it was closed down in the 1960s.
“The building has been hit hard by humidity; as you know, humidity increases in closed areas and this place has been closed for years,” she said.
“It was restored briefly during British colonial rule and used as a museum for archaeological finds by the British, but it closed down again and was not looked after properly for years.
“We have used modern methods to remove the old plastering and to replace it with humidity resistant plaster, because unfortunately the hamam is situated at the lowest point in Paphos and therefore it will always be humid.
“We even tried digging a trench around it in an effort to hold off the humidity, but we keep finding water.”
Marangou said there were older people that still remembered the hamam being used in the 60s.
“There were separate days for men and women like in all hamams, there were always separate times for men and women; even today at the Nicosia hamam women go on Wednesdays and Fridays,” she said.
But Marangou said she was saddened by the fact that Paphos’ other hamam, the Hasan Ağa baths in Kato Paphos was being left to rot, saying she would love to see it restored to its former glory.
“We have little evidence on the other hamam, I asked some of my Turkish Cypriot colleagues to give me some more evidence, but we know that it was probably built at around the 16th – 17th century,” she said.
“We believe that it was also a part of another building and it is thought it was named after a local Turkish lord.
“We have to see what to do with that one, they are not really looking out for it and it’s just sitting there, it’s one of the things that I would like to be preserved and I would also like to see it used again,” Marangou added.
She explained how hamams were built to accommodate the Turkish Cypriot communities that lived in the area. “Each community had its own hamam.”
“It wasn’t only used for cleanliness but also for socialising. Going to the hamam was a big deal and especially for women it was a way of life.
“If was their outing, the place they would go to socialise to meet their friends, the hamam was their break from the strains of life at that period.”
