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

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 outlets alternate between each other, every drawing a handful of consumers at any given time.

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

Gaggles of buddies and lone vacationers mill round an arched stone entrance. A few of them sport slicked-back hair. Others clutch monumental 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, have been as soon as central in Ottoman society. Initially government-run institutions, these bathhouses fell out of trend in Istanbul through the Nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The hammams within the metropolis have since been abolished or acquired by personal entities.

During the last decade, the showering ritual has began to achieve recognition once more, with a collection 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 centered 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 because the flip of the century. The 4 Seasons Sultanahmet, Shangri-La Bosphorus and Six Senses Kocatas Mansions all boast their very own glittering marble bathhouses.

Desirous 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 remedy and return to afterwards for leisure and socialising. Most bathhouses have separate sections for women and men, although some smaller institutions may have completely different hours for both gender to attend.

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

“Renovations have been initially projected to take three years however we stored making discoveries,” Yazgan explains. The Byzantine cistern, a collection of intricate galleon carvings, and quite a few archaeological trinkets have been among the many objects that needed to be excavated.

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

“Our goal was to honour the historical past of this regional wellness follow,” Yazgan explains. “That’s the reason we renovated the hammam consistent with historic requirements. We used conventional Marmara marble and stored unique design options, together with the ornate tiles – or cinili –  that gave the bathhouse its identify.”

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

“Some hammams have made changes to enchantment to modern-day guests however our visitors truly need to absolutely immerse themselves within the historical past and tradition of the bathhouses. That’s the reason we provide the standard environment and ritual,” Yazgan explains.

“Individuals are in a position to really feel the centuries-old legacy of this follow through the bathing course of. You will notice,” she assures me.

Scrubbing and socialisation: Bygone rituals

Once I enter the chilly room, an attendant brings me a refreshing chilly sherbet drink, a convention designed to hydrate visitors earlier than their remedy. I gulp it down earlier than making a beeline for the altering rooms. Right here, I undress and wrap a pesthemal – a conventional 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, girls stretch out throughout sizzling stone slabs or curl up on marble steps as their attendant scrubs them. Echoes of ladies laughing and speaking amongst themselves periodically interrupt the mild sounds of operating water.

My attendant tells me to lie on the central hexagonal desk to acclimate to the temperature. After 10 minutes cross, 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 comply with, cleansing me fully earlier than I’m guided again into the chilly room to loosen up.

Perched in a cushioned alcove, I watch teams of buddies 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 cleaning oneself is central in Islam, so bathhouses performed a key function 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 beginning 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.

“In fact, they might gossip, or choose brides for male relations,” Fleet defined. “Nonetheless, there are additionally reviews of females chatting about enterprise or politics. Certainly, within the Nineteenth century, there was plenty of concern inside the regime that the hammam was a spot the place each 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 stage, the introduction of personal loos in Istanbul meant that fewer individuals truly had a purpose to go to the bathhouse.

“In rural areas, having a toilet in your own home was much less widespread, so hammams truly retained plenty of their recognition there.”

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

“The accessibility of water comes into it in fact, however so too does a change in attitudes. Hammams have all the time been exoticised by the West. Through the Nineteenth century, some European observers described them as backward, unhygienic or as selling homoerotic promiscuity. Because the bathhouses turned related to these options, they began to fall out of trend,” 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 have 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 have been thus privatised throughout this era.

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

“Social reforms meant that ladies have been now not segregated to the enclosed areas of the house and the hammam. They might attend faculties and universities, work together with the alternative gender, and in addition gown equally 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, most of the conventional bathhouses in Istanbul had fallen into disarray.

“Once I was a toddler within the late 80s, bathing in a historic hammam was not a quite common factor to do,” Kayhan reminisced. “Turkey was going via a interval of industrialisation and plenty of new cash had are available. Within the late 90s and early 2000s, going to Western-style spas in luxurious resorts turned much more modern and well-liked in distinction to the rundown public hammams that have been poorly maintained.”

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

“Globalisation made every thing generic and homogenised. By the flip of the century, individuals began to crave one thing completely different,” Kayhan stated. “In Turkish society, this meant reviving the elements of conventional tradition that made the area distinctive.”

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

“Worldwide resorts have been selecting elements of Turkish tradition that may enchantment to their guests,” Kayhan defined. “In some methods, which means that the bathhouses are being fetishised by the vacationer trade, but it surely has helped popularise the hammam ritual once more.”

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

Essentially the most notable of those was the latest opening of the Zeyrek Cinili hammam. “Individuals not solely come right here to cleanse themselves, but additionally to really feel a way of connection to a longstanding custom,” Anlam De Coster, the inventive director at Zeyrek Cinili, stated. “Each locals and vacationers are fascinated by the historical past and tradition 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 sneakers 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 models 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 workers made by famend clothier Hussein Chalayan.

“The recognition of our hammam, and the quantity of creatives which are keen to answer the house, exhibits that bathhouses are nonetheless related in the present day and are actually assuming a brand new function in Istanbul,” De Coster instructed me.

“Individuals are participating with this historic ritual in a reimagined manner – one that matches inside modern-day life too.”