Under Sinan's Domes, the Historic Baths of the Old City

Start the route at this double bath in the narrow streets of Zeyrek, one of the rare places where you can both tour an Ottoman bath as a museum and bathe in it. It was commissioned by Barbaros Hayreddin Pasha, grand admiral of the Ottoman fleet, and designed by Mimar Sinan. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam dates it to around 1540-1546, although some sources give earlier years. The men's and women's sections mirror each other, each with a changing hall, a warm room and a cross-shaped hot room, where four iwans and four private cubicles surround an octagonal central platform.

Most of the tiles that gave the bath its name are now in other cities. The walls were once faced up to a certain height with blue and white İznik tiles. After fires and earthquakes damaged the building, the tiles were removed, sold off in the 19th century and ended up in European collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. According to the TDV article published in 1993, the only tiles still in place by then were in the hot room of the men's section.

Excavations during a restoration that lasted thirteen years turned up thousands of tile fragments in thirty-seven different designs, and Byzantine cisterns were found beneath the changing halls. The building reopened with its museum in September 2023, and bathing resumed in 2024. In the museum next door, look at the sections on the story of the tiles and on how the bath's water and heating worked; they help you picture how the bare walls you will see further along the route once looked. If you plan to bathe here, ask ahead about the men's and women's sections and about reservations.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi; Arkitera; Wikipedia.

The streets climbing from Zeyrek to Süleymaniye bring you to this bath at the southern end of the mosque complex. Work on the complex built in the name of Süleyman the Magnificent began in 1550 and was finished in October 1557, and the bath was part of chief architect Sinan's grand programme. Because coppersmiths and metal casters settled around it, it was long known as the Dökmeciler Hamamı, the casters' bath.

What sets it apart from the other baths on this route is that it is a single bath, with no separate women's section. Writing in the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, Semavi Eyice suggests it was probably intended less as an ordinary public bath than for the staff of the complex and the students living in its colleges. The plan shows Sinan experimenting. A large dome rises over a square changing hall 11.5 metres a side; after a three-part warm room comes a hot room of the four-iwan type, where the private cubicles are separated by marble columns. The same encyclopedia's article on baths points out that here Sinan combined the classic bath plan with thermal spring architecture to create a version with columns inside.

The last century of the building has had its ups and downs. It was closed in 1916-1917, turned into a workshop in the 1930s and later restored as a bath by its owner. According to Wikipedia, since a restoration in 2001 it has mainly catered to tourists. Its admission arrangements may differ from other baths, so if you plan to bathe here, ask the management before you go. If you are not bathing here, look at the domes and lead roofs from the street, then walk down from the Süleymaniye ridge towards Beyazıt.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi; Wikipedia.

This huge double bath beside Ordu Caddesi belongs to the Bayezid II complex around Beyazıt Square and is now visited as Istanbul University's Bayezid II Turkish Bath Culture Museum. Its date is uncertain: the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam gives 1500-1505, while the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's museum listing gives 1507-1508. Its income was assigned to the foundation of Gülbahar Hatun, mother of Selim I.

The two sections stand side by side on the same plan, with four-iwan hot rooms and private cubicles in the corners. The dome of the men's changing hall is about 15 metres across, which shows you the scale a public bath could reach. The most surprising detail is in the foundations. The bath was built partly with carved fragments of the triumphal column that stood in the Forum of Theodosius on this square in Byzantine times, used simply as building stone. According to TDV, some pieces are still in the foundations and a few were taken to the Istanbul Archaeology Museums.

After the 1930s the changing hall was rented out as a leather store, the hot rooms partly became a blacksmith's workshop, and the building stood in ruins for a long time. Istanbul University took it over in 2000, and after restoration the museum opened on 27 May 2015. Inside are ethnographic objects such as bath wraps and copper and brass bowls, along with Byzantine and Ottoman architectural pieces found during excavation. This is the easiest stop for walking through every part of a bath in order without bathing, so use it to put the terms from the start of the route in their place as you move from changing hall to hot room. According to the ministry listing the museum is closed at weekends; check current days and hours before you go.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi; Türkiye Müzeleri (Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı); Wikipedia.

From Beyazıt, walk through the Grand Bazaar and out of the Mahmutpaşa Gate, and a few minutes downhill you reach this bath. According to the inscription over its door it was built in 1466-1467 as part of the complex of Mahmud Pasha, grand vizier to Mehmed the Conqueror, and it is one of the oldest surviving baths in the city. The Kürkçü Han, part of the same complex, is only a few steps away.

It was originally a double bath; the women's section was later demolished to make room for commercial buildings. The surviving part has three large domed spaces. The changing hall is covered by a windowed dome about 17 metres across, set on the walls with muqarnas squinches. According to Wikipedia, the warm room has the earliest surviving half-dome in Istanbul. In the octagonal hot room, niches, side iwans and corner cubicles are arranged around the central platform. Look too at the muqarnas niche over the entrance and the facade, where you can see the plain but dignified decoration of 15th-century Ottoman buildings up close.

The building's later story shows how a bath can change roles in a city. It was damaged in a fire in 1755, restored in 1953 and used as a bath again for a while, then turned into a storeroom and in the 1990s into a bazaar. Today it is full of shops, and you can walk under the domes to get a sense of the space. Keep your eyes up among the stalls: above the shelves, the dome and squinches still carry the building's real identity. Mahmutpaşa Yokuşu is very crowded on weekdays, so walk slowly and do not block the flow in front of the shops.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi (Mahmud Paşa Külliyesi); Wikipedia.

Climb back up from Mahmutpaşa towards Nuruosmaniye and Divanyolu, and you arrive at this bath at the foot of the porphyry Çemberlitaş Column. It was commissioned in 1584 by Nurbanu Sultan, wife of Selim II and mother of Murad III, and its income was assigned to the Atik Valide complex in Üsküdar. Sources differ on the architect. The bath is usually attributed to Mimar Sinan, but in the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam Semavi Eyice notes that it does not appear in the lists of his works.

The most original part of the building is the hot room. It is laid out as a twelve-sided polygon, with a ring of twelve columns around the central platform and domed cubicles in the corners. Notice the geometric marble inlay on the floor and walls. The big domes over the changing halls rest on corner squinches.

The bath still carries the marks of 19th-century urban works. When Divanyolu was widened in 1868, a slice was cut from the changing hall. The women's section stopped being a bath and became first a restaurant, then a carpet shop. The building suffered a fire in 1916-1917 and the men's section was restored in 1972-1973. The steps at the entrance were added when the street level changed.

The bath is still working, and almost all its customers are foreign visitors. If you bathe here, sweat first on the central platform, then wait for the attendant for the scrub and foam, and afterwards sit for a while in the changing hall to cool down. Ask at the entrance which section or hours are set aside for women and for men. If you are not bathing, stand by the column right next door and see how this corner, where the two buildings meet, sums up a city that moved from Byzantine forum to Ottoman bazaar.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi; Çemberlitaş Hamamı resmi sitesi; Wikipedia.

Walk east along Divanyolu from Çemberlitaş and turn towards Cağaloğlu to reach this bath. It was completed in 1741 to provide income for the library Sultan Mahmud I had founded in Ayasofya. Sources name different architects: the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam cautiously mentions an architect called Hüsrev, while other sources credit Süleyman Ağa and Abdullah Ağa.

Cağaloğlu is one of the last great public baths of Istanbul. Because Mustafa III banned the construction of new baths within the city in 1768, nothing on this scale was ever built again. That makes it a good place to compare with Sinan's 16th-century baths. The plan is still classical: changing hall, warm room and a hot room with four iwans and four private cubicles. What has changed is the decoration. In the details you see the Baroque influence that reached Ottoman art from the West in the 18th century, and TDV counts this building among the examples of foreign artistic influence in Turkish architecture. Set the sober classical lines you saw in Zeyrek and Çemberlitaş against the curving language here, and two centuries of changing taste become obvious.

The double bath has two separate entrances. The men's section is reached by stairs from the street, while the women's door opens onto a side street, a typical example of the old Ottoman habit of never opening both doors onto the same street. The bath still operates, and almost all its customers are tourists. If you are not bathing, find the two doors from outside and read the double-bath layout from the street, then walk a few minutes on to Ayasofya.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi; Cağaloğlu Hamamı resmi sitesi; Wikipedia.

The last stop is this long, lead-domed building running along the square between Ayasofya-i Kebir Mosque and the Sultanahmet Mosque. Mimar Sinan built it in 1556-1557 to generate income for the foundations of Hürrem Sultan, wife of Süleyman the Magnificent, and it was meant to serve the congregation of Ayasofya. Beneath it lie the remains of the Roman Baths of Zeuxippus, so bathing on this corner goes back much further.

What makes the bath special in Ottoman architecture is the arrangement of its two sections. For the first time in Turkish bath architecture, the women's and men's sections were placed end to end on a single axis. In the building, about 75 metres long, the men's entrance faces north and the women's faces west. The men's changing hall, warm room and hot room follow one another, then come the women's hot room, warm room and changing hall, so the two hot rooms sit back to back in the middle. Each has an octagonal marble platform at its centre. Notice the colonnaded porch in front of the men's section, a solution rarely seen in baths of the period.

The bath was used until 1910, then stood closed for a long time and served as a storeroom at various periods. After a restoration in 1957-1958 it became a state-run carpet showroom. Following a thorough restoration from 2008 to 2011, it reopened as a working bath in May 2011. Ending the route with a bath here is a good idea; book in advance and ask the bath about its sections and services. When you come out, sit in the square for a while in the late afternoon light and look once more at this long row of domes between Ayasofya and Sultanahmet.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi; Wikipedia.