The first question for a visitor who wants to go to a hamam in Amasya is which one to choose. The city centre has several Ottoman-era bathhouses that still welcome bathers: the Mustafa Bey, Yıldız, Kumacık and Altuntaş hamams. The first two are the most often mentioned, both for their age and for the fact that they remain open to use. Since the building history, endowment arrangements and architecture of each are covered in separate articles on this site, this page gathers what is most useful to a visitor: where the hamams are, which rooms one passes through inside, the order in which a bath proceeds, what other options exist in the districts and at the hot springs, and who the people were that kept these buildings running over the centuries.

Historic Hamams Still Operating in Amasya

Amasya and its surroundings hold many bathhouse buildings from the Roman, Seljuk and Ottoman periods, and some of them are still in operation today. Local records list the Mustafa Bey, Kumacık, Altuntaş and Yıldız hamams in the city centre, and the Paşa Hamam in Merzifon, among those currently working. All follow the same Ottoman layout: first the changing hall, then the cooler and warm rooms, and last the domed hot room. What sets the buildings apart is the number of domes, the plan of the hot room and later additions. The city's network of hamams was once far larger, and those still working today are a few surviving links of it. The fuller story of the lost hamams and of the endowment system is told in our article on the history of Amasya's hamams.

For a visitor, the practical difference is location. Mustafa Bey and Kumacık lie around Mehmet Paşa Street, between the Bimarhane and the line of the Künç Bridge. The Yıldız Hamam stands next to the Hatuniye Mosque, on Derya Street in the Hatuniye quarter; it is reached on foot among the mansions of the river's north bank, beside the Hazeranlar Mansion. The Altuntaş Hamam is on the same bank, near the Mâdenüs Bridge. All four are in the city centre within walking distance, so a visit fits easily at the start or end of a walk along the Yeşilırmak.

Mustafa Bey Hamam

The hamam was built in 1436 by Mustafa Bey, son of Yörgüç Pasha, the lala (tutor-guardian) of Sultan Murad II. Today it is known by its address on Habibi Street in the Pirinççi quarter; it stands north of the Bimarhane on Mehmet Paşa Street and can be reached on foot from the centre. With the Mehmed Pasha Mosque on one side and the Bimarhane, now a museum, and the river on the other, it occupies one of the busiest historic corners of the city, and the steam rising from its chimneys shows from a distance that the building is still at work. The walls are built of rubble stone and brick. One enters through a round-arched door set within a marble frame, and this entrance is the first detail of the building to catch the eye.

The interior follows the sequence of classical Ottoman hamams. Large niches are set into the walls of the square changing hall. The cool room, with muqarnas above its niches, is covered by a dome. The hot room, the main bathing space, is a domed chamber surrounded on its four sides by four large niches. Local records state that the changing hall and the hot room are covered by two separate domes. Parts such as the cistern and the furnace lie outside the area the visitor enters. The founder's father, Yörgüç Pasha, was the lala of Murad II; lala was the title of the experienced statesman responsible for a prince's education and administration. The building's date, its link to the family and its fortunes in later centuries are told in detail in our article on the Mustafa Bey Hamam.

Yıldız Hamam

The Yıldız Hamam is also known as the Bülbül Hatun Hamam, the Hatuniye Hamam and the Çukur Hamam. It is part of the Hatuniye Complex completed in 1510, which was built by Bülbül Hatun, consort of Bayezid II. The square building is covered by a dome with a lantern. South of a domed changing hall lies the cool room; east of the cool room are the toilets, and to its west the hot room and the furnace. The furnace (külhan) is the stoke-hole where the hamam's water is heated; the visitor never sees it, yet it produces all of the building's heat.

A hamam is known to have stood on the same site in the Seljuk period, and it is considered highly likely that the present building was raised on top of that Seljuk bath. The information plaque beside the door reflects this view; according to a foreign travel guide, the plaque states that the hamam was built in the middle of the thirteenth century and rebuilt in the sixteenth. The name Çukur Hamam ("the sunken hamam") is said to derive from the building's position at a lower level than its surroundings; this explanation rests on no document and comes from common tradition. The floor of the changing hall is not heated, and the room is cool compared with the heat inside; the lantern dome brings daylight in from above. This is how Ottoman hamams were lit: lanterns and windows in the changing hall, and in the warm and hot rooms round, convex glass lights set into the domes, known as "elephant's eyes" (fil gözü). Bülbül Hatun's endowment, what the sources say about the hamam's Seljuk origins and the ruptures the building went through in the twentieth century are discussed in our article on the Yıldız Hamam.

The Kumacık and Altuntaş Hamams

The Kumacık Hamam, in the Bayezidpaşa quarter in line with the Künç Bridge, was built in 1495 by the Gate Agha (kapıağası) Ayas Agha; some publications give the date as 1494 and the founder's name as Ayazağa. The square changing hall of the rubble-stone building is closed by a large dome carried on Turkish triangles. The hot room consists of a central dome, four iwans and two private cubicles (halvet). The domes are covered outside with Turkish-style tiles. Because the building lies below street level, one descends into it by steps. The name of this building, raised on a separate plot to provide income for Ayas Agha's complex in Şamlar, together with the later changes to its plan and its restorations, is the subject of our article on the Kumacık Hamam.

The Altuntaş Hamam (Upper Hamam), on Şifre Street in the Hatuniye quarter near the Mâdenüs Bridge, is built of dressed stone, rubble stone and mortar. Besides its cool, warm and hot rooms it has a furnace, and it is roofed with domes and vaults. As it has no building inscription its date is uncertain; it is thought to date probably from the seventeenth century. Hüsameddin writes that the Seljuk Sultan Mesud built a hamam together with his palace in İçerişehir, at the spot that corresponds to today's Kurşunlu quarter, and he also mentions an old building he calls the "Upper Hamam" in this area; this suggests that the present building may stand on the site of an older hamam, but no published document confirms it. According to Hüsameddin, the great mansion of an emir who governed Amasya in the early eighteenth century stood above the Upper Hamam, and the ruins of its harem quarters could still be seen in his day.

Hamams in the Districts

Outside the centre there are other historic hamams in which one can bathe. The Paşa Hamam in Merzifon was built in 1678 by the Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha; with its domed changing hall, long rectangular cool room and hot room resting on an octagonal drum, it is counted among the fine examples of Ottoman hamam architecture. As Merzifon lies outside the city centre, it calls for a separate trip.

The hamam tradition of Gümüşhacıköy rests on the town's link with its silver mine. As Hüsameddin tells it, the Gümüş silver mine was for a time granted to Köprülü Mehmed Pasha as an arpalık (a revenue grant), and the pasha was required to live there. In the town the pasha built a stone caravanserai, a bedesten, a large mosque and, beside it, a hamam, and endowed them all in 1071 (1661). According to the study Fahriye Bayram published in 2000, this building, known locally as the Büyük Hamam (Great Hamam), stands on Ekin Pazarı Street opposite the tomb of Hacı Nadir Saba and was built in 1658; the endowment deed of 1071 refers to it as "a hamam with two private cubicles". Its entrance lies below ground level, two steps lead down into the changing hall, and in the centre is a pool, octagonal outside and round inside. The hot room is a transverse space, domed in the middle and vaulted at either side, and the central dome is lit by nine elephant's eyes. Bayram counts this plan as an example of the type "with a transverse hot room domed in the middle and paired cubicles", to which the Nalıncılar and Muradiye hamams in Bursa and the Büyük Hamam in İznik also belong.

The marble inscription above the door of the Büyük Hamam does not in fact belong to the building itself. Hüsameddin writes that in 1170 (1756-57) Abdülbâkî Bey, son of Hâfız Ahmed Pasha and one of the pasha's descendants, while living in the town as superintendent of the silver mine, had the mosque renovated and added "one more fine hamam", which he endowed. Bayram states that the building adjoining the east side of the Büyük Hamam, known today as the Böcüklü Hamam, must be this second hamam, and that the inscription is its building inscription. In the inscription, written in thuluth script, the founder's name appears in Bayram's reading as "Saki Bey ibn Ahmed Paşa"; the final chronogram line is built on a phrase taken from the Qur'anic verse that commands those in a state of major impurity to purify themselves. In the Böcüklü Hamam, a lozenge-shaped fountain in the changing hall and, in the hot room, a basin reused from another building, its front decorated with flowers and a wheel-of-fortune motif, draw the eye. One more hamam was built in Gümüşhacıköy at the beginning of the twentieth century: according to Hüsameddin, in 1324 (1906-07) the district governor Hacı Tâhir Bey began building a hamam on the road on the qibla side of the Hacı Yahyâ Mosque to provide income for education, and it was completed in two years with the help of the townspeople.

The Tekke Hamam in the small town of Gümüş is known locally as the Seljuk Hamam. There is no written record of its date or founder; it is claimed to have been built around 1367 by Ahi İbrahim and his son Ahi Surak, who are also said to have built the dervish lodge to the south of the hamam. The changing hall, warm room, hot room and two private cubicles are each covered by their own domes; an eight-sided lantern sits at the centre of the changing-hall dome, and a courtyard was later added to the north. Bayram's study states that all three hamams were sound and still in use at the time of publication. Which of them are open today should be asked locally.

Hamam and Hot Spring

The word hamam describes a building devoted to bathing with heated water. Buildings that use naturally hot water are called kaplıca and ılıca in Turkish, and what chiefly distinguishes them from a hamam is the large pool in the middle of the main bathing hall. Turkish hamams, apart from hot springs, have no pools; bathing is done by pouring water at the basin (kurna). It is useful for a visitor to Amasya not to confuse the two experiences, since both exist within the province.

The hot spring nearest the city is the Gözlek spa at kilometre thirteen of the Amasya-Çorum road; its water is between 38 and 40 degrees and a thermal facility stands beside it. Remains found at the Terziköy springs, near the Amasya-Zile road and 36 kilometres from the centre, show that they have been in use since the Roman period; the facility, with water at 37-39 degrees, has separate pools for women and men as well as a traditional Turkish hamam. At Hamamözü, about 90 kilometres from the centre, the Arkut Bey spa, said to take its name from a Seljuk bey, runs a public hamam fed by water of around 42.5 degrees. The history of this spa and the properties of its water are described in our article on the Hamamözü Arkut Bey hot springs. Bathing times and health conditions at hot springs follow rules different from those of a hamam, and the facilities' own instructions should be followed.

Building a hamam over a hot spring is an old practice around Amasya. Hüsameddin writes that Rıdvan Agha of Amasya, a former head gatekeeper, built a hamam over the spring at the village of Ilıca in the Geldiklan district and endowed it in 987 (1579-80). According to the same author the hamam was popularly known as "Ilıca", and for this reason Delice Tâhir Bey, who lived on his farm nearby, was given the nickname "Ilıcalı".

Hamams Visible as Ruins

Amasya also has hamams that can be seen but not used. Of the Kızlar Sarayı (Maidens' Palace), on the slope where the rock-cut tombs of the kings stand, only two hamams have survived. Since they have no inscriptions, their dates and founders are unknown. The Great Bath is a palace hamam that has kept its changing hall, warm room, hot room, furnace and water tank well preserved; researchers, noting that traces of old water channels descending from the castle end near the hamam, have discussed whether its foundations might reach back to the Hellenistic age, and have proposed that, given the crowds who come to see the rock tombs, the building could be turned into a hamam museum. Hüsameddin, too, describing Harşena Castle, records that the castle counted as a quarter and contained, besides a palace, a mosque, a madrasa, a zaviye and a soup kitchen, two hamams. These palace and castle hamams are also discussed, together with customs such as the bridal bath, in our article on Amasya's hamam culture and the bridal bath.

The traces of the hamams lost within the city now survive only in the records. The Kadı Hamamı in the Fethiye quarter is a good example. According to Hüsameddin, it was built by the Amasya judge known as "Molla Beylik"; his son, the military judge Molla Vildan Mehmed Çelebi, founded a madrasa above the hamam, and his grandson Abdurrahman Çelebi endowed the hamam in 912 (1506-07). For centuries the trusteeship of the hamam remained in the branches of the same family, known as the Kadızâde and Muslîzâde; even at the end of the seventeenth century its trustee was a member of this line. Among those who drew a share of the hamam's rental income were the former grand vizier Nâilî Abdullah Pasha and his brother Ebûbekir Vahdetî Efendi. The madrasa eventually vanished altogether, and the Kadı Hamamı is also among the city's hamams that no longer stand. Osman Fevzi Olcay writes that in the fire of 1915 seven hamams in the city burned within four hours, and most of the city's network of hamams was lost in that disaster.

The Parts of a Hamam

In the Ottoman-Turkish hamam, bathing proceeds by passing through rooms one after another. The first is the changing hall, also called camekân. It is a large domed space, cool compared with the heat inside, with raised platforms running along the walls. In old hamams small arched compartments for shoes were set beneath the platforms. A fountain stood in the centre and a coffee hearth against one wall; today this room is the place to rest and drink tea.

After the changing hall comes the warm room. It is sometimes also called the cool room; it is usually a rectangular space lying crosswise, with a stone bench and a few toilet cubicles. In some hamams a corner of the warm room, called the usturalık, was set aside for shaving and depilation. The real heat is in the hot room, entered through a narrow door about a person's height. The door is made this low to keep the heat from escaping.

At the centre of the hot room is the göbek taşı: a raised platform, that is, a large heated marble slab. Instead of a separate closed sweating room, the göbek taşı was preferred. The private cubicles (halvet) around the hot room are partly separate bathing rooms. Behind the hamam, where the visitor does not go, are the furnace and the water tank. For centuries wood was burned here; in recent years diesel has become common in working hamams.

From the Roman Bath to the Turkish Hamam

The Roman bath followed a different arrangement: a colonnaded courtyard stood in front, and one passed from the apodyterium, the changing room, to the cold-water frigidarium, then to the warm tepidarium and to the hottest part, the caldarium. The Romans used the bath for conversation and debate as well as for bathing. Local records say that Amasya has monumental baths from the Roman, Seljuk and Ottoman periods; the buildings one visits today to bathe, however, are Ottoman.

After the Seljuks settled in Anatolia, hamams began to be built almost everywhere in the region. In the market hamams of the Seljuk and beylik periods, the hot room usually follows a plan with four iwans and private cubicles at the corners. This arrangement is a scheme used since very early times in Turkish architecture. Because the iwans open in four directions the hot room takes the form of a cross, and the corners left between its arms and the outer walls become the private cubicles. Depending on the size of the hamam or its plot, the number of cubicles may drop from four to three or two. The hot room of the Kumacık Hamam, with four iwans and two cubicles, follows this tradition. The transverse hot room of the Büyük Hamam in Gümüşhacıköy and the arrangement of equal rooms in the Tekke Hamam at Gümüş and the Böcüklü Hamam show that other plan types can also be seen within the same province.

The People Who Worked in the Hamam

In old hamams the tasks that one person handles today were divided among separate attendants. In men's hamams worked servants known by names such as külhancı (stoker), meydancı, peştamalcı, çıkmacı and kahveci (coffee-maker), collectively called hamam servants. There were also laundrymen who washed the customers' towels, cloths and peştamals (bath wraps) and dried them by hanging them on a wooden frame called a kafes, with a brazier placed in the middle. Under the regulations of the judge's court, hamam workers were placed under chain surety, and the most senior servant, the sernöbet tellak, was held responsible for all of them. The duties of the tellaks and nâtırs toward customers, their fees and the rules to be observed were set out in these regulations.

Evliya Çelebi records that hamam keepers, tellaks and nâtırs each had their own patron saints, and that the peştamal was believed to have been girded by Salman the Pure in the presence of Ali. This tradition shows the weight the hamam guild gave to its own trade. Running a hamam also meant that water and fuel were a heavy burden: because great quantities of water and wood were consumed in eighteenth-century Istanbul, a 1768 decree of Mustafa III sought to prevent the building of new market hamams. This information concerns Istanbul, but it shows that the cost of water and fuel for a hamam was heavy in the past as well.

The Hamam Keepers of Amasya

Endowed hamams were usually leased, and the running of them was taken on by a tenant called the hamamcı. In Amasya this trade was established enough to give its name to some families. In the biographical section of Hüsameddin's work appear names such as Hâfız Ali Efendi, who ran the Alaca Hamam and was known as "Rüstem's Ali Hâfız"; Hamamcı İsmail Hakkı Efendi, who died in 1305 (1887-88); and the hamam keeper Seyyid Ahmed Agha, guardian of the children of a draper who died in 1328 (1910). The son of Ahmed Agha, keeper of the Upper Hamam, rose in the learned profession and was known by the name Hammamîzâde.

The source that describes hamam life at the beginning of the twentieth century most closely is the memoir of Osman Fevzi Olcay. According to Olcay, Dubaracıoğlu Hamamcı Hacı Ali Hafız Agha ran both the Sinan Hamam at Selağzı and the Mustafa Bey Hamam in front of the Bimarhane. His wife Ayşe Hanım managed the women's sections of the two hamams, and after closing in the evening the attendants stayed on night watch, feeding the fire according to the state of the furnace. Seyyid Agha, who served in Hafız Agha's hamam, lived in the same neighbourhood. On the corner directly opposite the Mustafa Bey Hamam stood the house of Mumcu Hakkı, whom Olcay also calls "Hamamcı Hakkı Efendi"; his son Mehmet Hilmi was Olcay's classmate at the secondary school (idadi). Between the hamam and its furnace stood a raised coffeehouse, most of whose regulars were enthusiasts of turkeys and fighting cocks, and hunters. Hafız Agha also had another raised coffeehouse at Selağzı, looking out over the Yeşilırmak.

How a Visit Proceeds

On arrival a cubicle or bench is assigned in the changing hall, clothes are left, a peştamal is tied around the waist and clogs or slippers are put on. It is wise to ask in advance whether the peştamal, towel and slippers are provided by the hamam. Old bathing sets included bundles, towels, bath bowls, combs and mitts; clogs were made of woods such as walnut, boxwood or ebony and decorated with mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell. Today most of these items have become plain and functional.

Next one passes through the warm room into the hot room. The first few minutes are given to letting the body adjust to the heat; rather than pouring hot water over oneself at once, sitting on the göbek taşı starts the sweating. Once sweating is under way, one wets oneself by pouring water at the basin, and then comes the scrub and foam. In men's hamams the attendant who washes is called the tellak, in women's hamams the nâtır. The scrub and foam service is optional and paid for. After the foam, first lukewarm and then cooler water is poured. On the way out one should wait for a while in the warm room, then move to the changing hall and wrap oneself in a peştamal or towel. Resting in the changing hall with a glass of tea is the usual end of a visit.

No step in this sequence is a strict requirement; some visitors stay only in the hot room and skip the scrub and foam. Staying too long in the hot room can cause dizziness. It is sensible to drink water when thirsty and to step out to the warm room when tired. One should not enter the hamam straight after a heavy meal. Those with heart or blood-pressure problems, pregnant women and those coming with small children should consult the attendant, and a doctor if necessary, before going in.

Which Hamam to Choose

The choice mostly depends on the building and its location. The Mustafa Bey Hamam is the earliest of the hamams mentioned here and suits those who want to see a fifteenth-century Ottoman hamam plan, with its muqarnas cool room and four-niched hot room; it can be combined in one walk with the Bimarhane and the Mehmed Pasha Mosque. The Yıldız Hamam stands out for its place within a complex and for a history held to rest on Seljuk foundations; as it is right beside the Hatuniye Mosque, it can be planned together with a visit to the mosque. The Kumacık Hamam is among the buildings that show the classical hot-room arrangement with four iwans and private cubicles most clearly. For those travelling towards Merzifon or Gümüşhacıköy there are the district hamams, and for those who want a hot spring there are Gözlek and Terziköy. There is no firm ranking among them; the time, the day and the availability of women's or men's sessions are often decisive.

Women's and Men's Sessions, Hours and Prices

In the Ottoman period single hamams were kept open to women by day and to men by night; there were also double hamams serving men and women in separate sections. The best-known example of this type in Amasya is the Alaca Hamam, which Hüsameddin also calls the "Double Hamam" and which no longer stands. All the hamams working today are single hamams, and the practice is like a continuation of the old tradition: separate days and hours are set for women and men. The schedule that a foreign travel guide once gave for the Mustafa Bey Hamam shows this clearly: men bathed in the early morning and from late afternoon until late at night, women during the daytime hours. The same guide wrote that the Yıldız Hamam was open from early morning until midnight. Which hours are reserved for which sex may vary from hamam to hamam and by season, and the last entry time differs in the same way. Because price lists are updated often, reliable information can be obtained only from the hamam itself, by telephone or on the spot.

Notes on Hamam Culture

The place of the hamam in Ottoman society went beyond cleanliness. Because houses had no separate room for washing, people went to the market hamams, and the hamam became a place of conversation and meeting, especially for women. Ceremonies such as the bridal bath, to which a bride-to-be was taken two days before the wedding, and the forty-day bath held on the fortieth day after a birth had names of their own. Among men it was customary to go to the hamam on Thursday nights, Friday mornings, and on the eves of Ramadan and the religious holidays. Bathing had its own etiquette too: steps such as the nâtır washing the customer and scrubbing off the dirt, the midday meal, resting in the cool room and drinking coffee followed a set order and decorum. Taking food to the hamam and eating it at midday on the göbek taşı was also a known custom. At a bridal bath the guests gathered in the cool room, sherbets were drunk and instruments played; the nâtırs took the bride to a private cubicle, washed her and then seated her on the göbek taşı. At the forty-day bath the new mother and her baby were washed in a ceremony attended by the midwife and relatives. The details of these ceremonies vary from region to region, and no record has been reported of hamams in Amasya being used for this purpose today.

In Anatolia hamam building gathered pace with the settlement of the Seljuks in the region. Market hamams were usually built to provide income for the endowment of a mosque or a complex; the fact that the Yıldız Hamam in Amasya is part of a complex fits this tradition. The hamam was also a haunt of the divan poets. From the fifteenth century onward hamams began to turn into literary gatherings, and poems on the hamam were called hammâmiyye. There are many proverbs about the hamam as well; "it echoes every sound like a hamam dome" is one of them.

The name of a poet from Amasya has become attached to one of the best-known anecdotes about the hamam. As Hüsameddin relates from the history of Ramazanzâde Mehmed Bey, the poet Ahmedî, who died in Amasya in 815 (1412), once went to the hamam with Timur at Kütahya. Timur had him put a price on each member of his retinue and then asked him to put a price on Timur himself; Ahmedî said eighty akçe, and when Timur replied, "Eighty akçe is the value of this peştamal of mine", the poet answered that it was the peştamal he had been pricing all along. Hüsameddin adds that Timur was pleased with this answer and rewarded the poet, and notes that the same story appears in a slightly different form in the biographical dictionary of Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi. The anecdote is a tradition, and there is no document showing that the event really took place; still, it reflects a world in which the peştamal was regarded in the hamam as both a person's covering and the measure of his worth.

Most of the earliest writings on Ottoman hamams were by Western authors. The authors of the most comprehensive encyclopedia entry on the hamam note that many of these writers exaggerated, with imaginary elements, a Turkish hamam they had never seen, and portrayed it as a low place of entertainment. Western accounts of the hamam should therefore be read with caution.

Chronology

c. 1367: The Tekke Hamam at Gümüş is claimed to have been built by Ahi İbrahim and his son Ahi Surak.

1436: Mustafa Bey, son of Yörgüç Pasha, builds the Mustafa Bey Hamam.

1495: The Gate Agha Ayas Agha builds the Kumacık Hamam (1494 in some publications).

912 (1506-07): Abdurrahman Çelebi endows the Kadı Hamamı in the Fethiye quarter.

1510: The Yıldız Hamam is completed together with Bülbül Hatun's Hatuniye Complex.

987 (1579-80): Rıdvan Agha endows the hamam he built over the spring at the village of Ilıca in Geldiklan.

1658: Köprülü Mehmed Pasha's Büyük Hamam is built in Gümüşhacıköy; it is mentioned in the endowment deed of 1071 (1661).

1678: The Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha builds the Paşa Hamam in Merzifon.

1170 (1756-57): Abdülbâkî Bey builds the second hamam (the Böcüklü Hamam) adjoining the Büyük Hamam in Gümüşhacıköy.

1324 (1906-07): The district governor Hacı Tâhir Bey begins building a hamam in Gümüşhacıköy to provide income for education; it is completed in two years.

1915: Seven hamams in the city burn in the great Amasya fire.

Bibliography

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