Hagia Sophia Hurrem Sultan Bath

The Haseki Hürrem Sultan Hamam, which has a place among the historical baths of Istanbul, is located between two important places such as the Hagia Sophia Museum and the Blue Mosque. This situation provides a great advantage in terms of domestic and foreign visitors to show interest in the hammam throughout the year. As the name suggests, it was built by Hürrem Sultan. He has his signature on many buildings in Istanbul and various cities of Anatolia at that time.

Hürrem Sultan, who had the bath specially built for Mimar Sinan, took the completed form of the building in 1557. The building, which was built on the location of the previously demolished Zeuksippos Baths, is also a double bath as it has two sections for women and men. In these two sections, there are specially hot, warm and cold parts. The bath, which continued to serve actively until 1910 after the period it was built, ceases its activities after this year. The building, which was closed for a long time, was used as a prison for a period when the Sultanahmet Prison was full. On the other hand, this building was also used as a paper warehouse for a period.

By 1957, the scope of the bath is undergoing some kind of repair and renovation work. In this way, the tiredness of the past is removed from the structure and it remains faithful to its original state. The repair process takes about a year, but despite all these efforts, the building is used as a carpet store until 2007.

The bathing section of Hagia Sophia Hürrem Sultan Bath, where it is possible to encounter the features of classical Ottoman baths, is 75 meters long. On the other hand, this bath is a first in terms of structural architecture in the Ottoman Empire in terms of the fact that the entrances of the men's and women's sections are on the same axis.

Finally, we should mention that the decorations on the pointed arched windows in the dressing rooms of the bath, which are adjacent to the hot sections, are quite remarkable and eye-catching.