Bey Hamam, Thessaloniki

Bey Hamam, also called the “Baths of Paradise,” is a Turkish bathhouse constructed in 1444 by Sultan Murad II. It was the first Ottoman bath in Thessaloniki and the most historical in Greece, representing an essential reminder of the Ottoman history of the region. It is a double batch, with separate baths for men and women. However, the male quarters are the most luxurious. The baths were organized as three rooms, the cold, tepid, and hot rooms. A large rectangular cistern next to the baths regulated the water supply. The baths remained in usage, under the name “Baths of Paradise” up until 1968.

The baths for the men include a large octagonal cold room, with a gallery resting on columns, arcades surrounding their windows, and a painted dome. It is followed by the tepid room, also octagonal, equipped with a dome and with a series of painted depictions of plants. Then the complex of hot rooms ordered around an ample space with the massage table in its center. Eight smaller hot and tepid rooms open onto this central space, and they are each equipped with basins and marble benches.