Haseki Hürrem Sultan Hamamı

Ayasofya Hürrem Sultan Hamamı
Ayasofya Hürrem Sultan Hamamı
General information
Location	Fatih, Istanbul
Address	Cankurtaran Mah. Ayasofya Meydanı No:2
Coordinates	41°00′26″N 28°58′45″E / 41.00732°N 28.97928°E / 41.00732; 28.97928
Opened	1556 (1556)
Renovated	May 2011
Owner	Metropolitan Municipality of Istanbul
Management	Haseki Tourism Group
Other information
Facilities	Steam bath, peeling and soap massage
Website
www.ayasofyahamami.com/en/index1.html

The Haseki Hürrem Sultan Hamamı (literally: Bath-house of Haseki Hürrem Sultan), aka Ayasofya Haseki Hamamı, is a Turkish hamam that was commissioned by the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I's consort, Hürrem Sultan, and constructed by Mimar Sinan during the 16th century in Istanbul. It was built on the site of historical Baths of Zeuxippus for the religious community of the nearby Hagia Sophia.

The public bath-house was constructed as a charity building by architect Mimar Sinan in 1556. The 75 m (246 ft) long structure is designed in the style of classical Ottoman baths having two symmetrical separate sections for males and females. Both sections, situated in north-south direction, are on the same axis that was a novelty in the Turkish bath architecture. The men's section is in the north while the women's part is in the south.

The exterior walls are built in courses of one cut stone and two bricks. The changing room of the men's section has four pointed-arch stained-glass windows above in the facade and the women's changing room has three windows.

The entrances of both sections are apart. The entrance to the men's section is in the north and the women's in the west. Unlike in the architecture of other Turkish baths, there is a stoa with a dome in the center of the men's section's front side. The roofs of the dome and the stoa are decorated with bricks, and covered by lead sheet material. A red and a white palmette with a golden epigraph on green ground ornament the pointed arch of the monumental entrance door.

Each section consists of three basic, interconnected rooms, namely the changing room (soyunmalık), the intermediate cool room (soğukluk, frigidarium) and the hot room (sıcaklık, caldarium). The hot rooms of the two sections are adjacent while the changing rooms are situated at the both end of the axis. The rooms are arranged in the order of the changing room, cool room and hot room of the men's section, followed by the hot room, cool room and the changing room of the women's section.