The historic hammam ritual is having a renaissance in Istanbul | Arts and Tradition

Istanbul, Turkey – The Zeyrek neighbourhood of Istanbul is quintessentially residential; males play backgammon on makeshift tables and discarded vegetable crates line the streets. Seemingly similar grocers, butchers and spice retailers alternate between each other, every drawing a handful of consumers at any given time.

Turning into Itfaiye Avenue, I catch sight of a sequence of silver domes lining the horizon. Beneath them, on the Zeyrek Cinili hammam, there’s a small commotion.

Gaggles of pals and lone vacationers mill round an arched stone entrance. A few of them sport slicked-back hair. Others clutch huge baggage with towels and exfoliator scrubs poking out.

The hub of exercise surrounding the newly restored Sixteenth-century bathhouse factors in direction of a wider cultural renaissance occurring within the metropolis: the revival of the historic hammam ritual.

Hammams, the place the communal bathing custom of being cleansed and scrubbed by an attendant takes place, had been as soon as central in Ottoman society. Initially government-run institutions, these bathhouses fell out of style in Istanbul through the Nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The hammams within the metropolis have since been abolished or acquired by non-public entities.

Over the past decade, the showering ritual has began to realize recognition once more, with a sequence of hammam restorations catering to the demand.

Zeyrek Cinili is by far essentially the most spectacular. The challenge took nearly 13 years to finish and included excavation of Byzantine cisterns under the grounds and the development of a museum targeted on hammam tradition.

Different notable hammams have undergone restoration too. The Sixteenth-century Kilic Ali Pasa hammam reopened in 2012 after a seven-year-long renovation and the Nineteenth-century Cukurcuma hammam began welcoming visitors once more in 2018 after closing for renovations in 2007.

Luxurious resorts have additionally began to include the historic hammam ritual of their providing for the reason that flip of the century. The 4 Seasons Sultanahmet, Shangri-La Bosphorus and Six Senses Kocatas Mansions all boast their very own glittering marble bathhouses.

Wanting to see what the fuss is about, I enterprise into the sogukluk, or chilly room, of the ladies’s part at Zeyrek Cinili. This house is the place bathers hydrate earlier than therapy and return to afterwards for leisure and socialising. Most bathhouses have separate sections for women and men, although some smaller institutions can have completely different hours for both gender to attend.

Koza Gureli Yazgan, the director of Zeyrek Cinili hammam, meets me there earlier than my therapy. She and her now-retired mom are the formidable forces behind the restoration challenge.

“Renovations were initially projected to take three years but we kept making discoveries,” Yazgan explains. The Byzantine cistern, a sequence of intricate galleon carvings, and quite a few archaeological trinkets had been among the many gadgets that needed to be excavated.

Decided to see the challenge via and restore every discovering to its authentic glory, the pair shifted their timeline considerably.

“Our aim was to honour the history of this regional wellness practice,” Yazgan explains. “That is why we renovated the hammam in line with ancient standards. We used traditional Marmara marble and kept original design features, including the ornate tiles – or cinili –  that gave the bathhouse its name.”

The partitions was once coated in these cerulean tiles, although solely six stay within the ladies’s part. The remainder of the tiles have both been misplaced or had been ferried to museums in Europe way back.

“Some hammams have made adjustments to appeal to modern-day visitors but our guests actually want to fully immerse themselves in the history and culture of the bathhouses. That is why we offer the traditional surroundings and ritual,” Yazgan explains.

“People are able to feel the centuries-old legacy of this practice during the bathing process. You will see,” she assures me.

Scrubbing and socialisation: Bygone rituals

After I enter the chilly room, an attendant brings me a refreshing chilly sherbet drink, a practice designed to hydrate visitors earlier than their therapy. I gulp it down earlier than making a beeline for the altering rooms. Right here, I undress and wrap a pesthemal – a standard light-weight and quick-drying cotton bathing towel – round myself.

As I enter the sicaklik (sizzling room) of the baths, I’m struck by the sheer opulence of the house. Hovering domed ceilings are peppered with celestial openings. Streaks of daylight pour via the star-shaped slits, bouncing off the marble partitions and benches in a blinding haze.

Round me, ladies stretch out throughout sizzling stone slabs or curl up on marble steps as their attendant scrubs them. Echoes of girls laughing and speaking amongst themselves periodically interrupt the light sounds of working water.

My attendant tells me to lie on the central hexagonal desk to acclimate to the temperature. After 10 minutes go, she collects me and guides me to a brass washing basin. Right here, I’m vigorously scrubbed with a kese, a tough exfoliating mitt.

Then, mounds of froth are poured onto me and the attendants’ agile fingers dart out and in to therapeutic massage my legs. Lashings of chilly water observe, cleansing me utterly earlier than I’m guided again into the chilly room to calm down.

Perched in a cushioned alcove, I watch teams of pals chatting and a mom and daughter bickering humorously within the nook.

Kate Fleet, the director of the Skilliter Centre for Ottoman Research on the College of Cambridge, defined how hammams have historically been a spot for individuals to socialize.

“The act of cleansing oneself is central in Islam, so bathhouses played a key role in Ottoman society,” Fleet stated.

Hammams turned a central hub for assembly up, conducting enterprise and celebrating key occasions akin to commemorating a wedding or the start of a kid.

Fleet tells me that the bathhouses turned central for ladies as a result of they might go to hammams unaccompanied and socialise with females exterior of their household circle.

“Of course, they would gossip, or select brides for male family members,” Fleet defined. “However, there are also reports of females chatting about business or politics. Indeed, in the 19th century, there was a lot of concern within the regime that the hammam was a place where both genders would criticise the Sultan.”

Personal loos, financial collapse and Orientalism: The decline of the hammam

The bathhouses loved notable recognition throughout this era. Frederic Lacroix’s Information Du Voyageur a Constantinople Et Dans Ses Environs claims that there have been roughly 300 in Istanbul through the 1830s.

Quickly after, nonetheless, hammams began to see a decline in recognition.

Ergin Iren, the proprietor of the Kilic Ali Pasa, defined how the rise of personal loos contributed to this decline: “On a really primary degree, the introduction of personal loos in Istanbul meant that fewer individuals really had a cause to go to the bathhouse.

“In rural areas, having a bathroom in your house was less common, so hammams actually retained a lot of their popularity there.”

Leyla Kayhan, a Turkish historian and fellow at Harvard College, touched on this decline additional.

“The accessibility of water comes into it of course, but so too does a change in attitudes. Hammams have always been exoticised by the West. During the 19th century, some European observers described them as backward, unhygienic or as promoting homoerotic promiscuity. As the bathhouses became associated with these features, they started to fall out of fashion,” she stated.

Each Kayhan and Fleet harassed that we should always not place an excessive amount of significance on the opinions of the West, nonetheless. Inner dynamics had been additionally at play.

By the Nineteenth century, the federal government was bankrupt. As the recognition of hammams waned, they might now not be sustained by an already struggling administration. Most of the bathhouses had been thus privatised throughout this era.

The Republican reforms below Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the president of the newly shaped Turkish Republic, additionally led to a shift within the early twentieth century.

“Social reforms meant that women were no longer segregated to the enclosed spaces of the home and the hammam. They could attend schools and universities, interact with the opposite gender, and also dress similarly to their counterparts in Europe,” Kayhan stated.

In consequence, the hammam misplaced its nuclear, central significance in society.

A historic ritual reimagined

By the late twentieth century, lots of the conventional bathhouses in Istanbul had fallen into disarray.

“When I was a child in the late 80s, bathing in a historical hammam was not a very common thing to do,” Kayhan reminisced. “Turkey was going through a period of industrialisation and a lot of new money had come in. In the late 90s and early 2000s, going to Western-style spas in luxurious hotels became far more fashionable and popular in contrast to the rundown public hammams that were poorly maintained.”

Issues began to vary about 10 years in the past, nonetheless.

“Globalisation made everything generic and homogenised. By the turn of the century, people started to crave something different,” Kayhan stated. “In Turkish society, this meant reviving the aspects of traditional culture that made the region unique.”

In lots of circumstances, it was luxurious resorts that began to include trendy, hammam areas of their properties first.

“International hotels were choosing aspects of Turkish culture that would appeal to their visitors,” Kayhan defined. “In some ways, this means that the bathhouses are being fetishised by the tourist industry, but it has helped popularise the hammam ritual again.”

A slew of historic hammams have additionally reopened over the past 12 years in Istanbul. Zeyrek Cinili, Kilic Ali Pasa hammam and Cukurcuma hammam all underwent in depth restoration initiatives.

Essentially the most notable of those was the latest opening of the Zeyrek Cinili hammam. “People not only come here to cleanse themselves, but also to feel a sense of connection to a longstanding tradition,” Anlam De Coster, the creative director at Zeyrek Cinili, stated. “Both locals and tourists are fascinated by the history and culture of the ritual.”

The restoration of Zeyrek Cinili faucets into this, with an onsite museum devoted to the historical past of hammam tradition. A show of conventional pearl-adorned bathhouse footwear and artefacts discovered throughout excavations are displayed there.

De Coster’s cultural programme additionally invitations artists to supply work for the house, together with an summary marble construction from Turkish artist Elif Uras; site-specific sculptural therapeutic massage items by Athens-based artist Theodore Psychoyos; a soundtrack titled Rhythms of Water, composed by Turkish musician, Mercan Dede; and a bespoke clothes assortment for guests and employees made by famend dressmaker Hussein Chalayan.

“The popularity of our hammam, and the amount of creatives that are eager to respond to the space, shows that bathhouses are still relevant today and are now assuming a new role in Istanbul,” De Coster advised me.

“People are engaging with this historical ritual in a reimagined way – one that fits within modern-day life too.”