Byzantine Bath (Thessaloniki)
The bath before its restoration
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| UNESCO World Heritage Site | |
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Thessaloniki, Municipality of Thessaloniki, Greece
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| Coordinates | 40°38′24″N 22°57′12″E / 40.640026°N 22.953464°E |
| Criteria | i, ii, iv |
| Reference | 456 |
| Inscription | 1988 (12th Session) |
 Location of Byzantine Bath
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The Byzantine Bath of the Upper Town (Greek: Βυζαντινά Λουτρά Άνω Πόλης) in Thesaloniki is one of the few and best preserved of the Byzantine baths that have survived from the Byzantine period in Greece. It is located on the Theotokopoulou Street in the Upper Old Town of Thessaloniki.
The baths date to the late 12th/early 13th century, and functioned continuously until 1940, when they shut down probably due to World War II and the German occupation of Greece. The Byzantine sources do not mention it, hence it is likely that it originally belonged to a monastery complex. In Ottoman times, it was known as Kule Hammam, i.e. "bath of the citadel".
The bath's long use led to numerous alterations of the original structure over time. The original architecture follows the typical conventions of Roman baths. The original entrance in the south leads to the rectangular frigidarium rooms, which were used as dressing rooms. Then came two vaulted tepidarium rooms and finally two caldarium rooms. The latter were square in shape and featured hypocausts below the floor. One was covered by a dome supported by an octagonal base with eight windows, the other had a domed ceiling. To the north of the baths was the cistern that provided it with water, with a hearth beneath to warm it. In Byzantine times the building was alternately used by men and women, but in the Ottoman period the bath was divided into exclusively male and female sections, by blocking off each pair of rooms from each other.
The bath was one of several in the city—the 14th-century writer Nikephoros Choumnos claims that Thessaloniki had more baths than inhabitants—but is the only surviving in Thessaloniki and the largest and most complete of the handful of Byzantine baths surviving elsewhere in Greece: five ruined public baths—two in Corinth, one in Sparta, one in Paramythia, one in Ioannina Castle—and one each in the monasteries of Kaisariani and Zoodochos Pigi.
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Wikipedia