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Architectural and Technical Aspects Regarding the Construction of Hammams in Ottoman GreeceHeleni KANETAKIArchitect engineer NTUA, Univ. di Roma La Sapienza, Athens - GRÈCEType de contribution : communication longueDuring the Ottoman period, a large number of bathhouses were constructed in the Balkans, as they were regarded a major Islamic building type. The Greek lands were occupied by the Ottomans during the last decade of the 14th century.Hammams which are still traced in Greece form a unique building category: they vary in size (we find small, medium sized and big ones), quality of construction, as well as decorative elements, while their interior space still shows signs of excellent aesthetic expression. Some of them are single and some others double, with separate accommodation for men and women. Small private baths are also found in houses (big mansions-konak), while the public hammams present similar architectural and constructional features to other ottoman buildings.The existing baths -approximately seventy buildings- are widespread all over the Greek territory, while a big number of them have been demolished in the past. It is very difficult to specify their exact date of construction, since no inscriptions are to be found and in most cases the buildings are in a state of decay.The architectural layout of a typical hammam.The typical sequence of spaces (disrobing room, tepid and hot section), whose existence was dictated by the rigid order under which the ritual operations in the hammams were performed, has remained practically unaltered –apart from certain cases, in regards to the relation of the sections, in which the building’s groundfloor plan pattern is divided (fig. 1). figure 1. Bey hammam, Thessaloniki, 1444. The biggest remaining bathhouse in GreeceThe basic disposition of their rooms consist of a disrobing room (soyunmalık or camekân) that was entered from the street, where people would sit on low wooden or stone benches around the walls. Disrobing rooms were often equipped with storied suites of changing cabins (attics), made of timber. It was often provided with a central fountain (şadırvan), while the women’s section included a depilatory.The next room was the tepid section (soğukluk or ılıklık), were the bather would get used to the rising temperature inside the hammam and prepare himself for the hot part (sıçaklık), that was situated adjoining to it. On the center of the sıçaklık was the göbektaşı, the navel stone or marble slab (in octagonal, exagonal and rectangular shape), on which bathers used to recline and to be massaged. Basins in elliptical and rectangular shape (kurnas) with taps were around the walls of this section, used for washing (bathers would scoop the water from the basins using tas, a brass or copper bowl and pour it over themselves).The sıcaklık was the next domed area, that included private corner cells (halvet). Floors were paved, provided with runnels to carry off the water.1. Proposed Typological Grouping of the Still Existing Ottoman Baths in GreeceThe comparative study of hammams in the Greek territory leads to a grouping into five typological categories (fig. 2), based on comparisons and confrontation between them, with the criteria of their size and especially the disposition of the hot section, that is regarded as the basic functional part of each building (cf Kanetaki E., Ta Othomanika Loutra ston Elladiko Choro, Technical Chamber of Greece, Athens, 2004).In the first group the hot room is cross-shaped, forming four eyvan and has four private small cells (halvet) situated in each corner. A semispherical dome rests on the intersection of the two axes: transition of loads from the dome to the walls is effected through solutions such like pendentives, squinches and turkish triangles. The four eyvan scheme is found in many building types, such as dwellings, hospitals, medrese. The doors in the corner rooms are placed at the in 45° degrees cutoff, just like in many other places of the Balkan area.The next group includes baths, where the hot part forms an inverted T plan, with three eyvan and two private hot rooms (halvet), situated at the end of the bath against the wall of the water container.In the third group, the sıcaklık still gives the impression of a two eyvan room, but the third one between the two halvet has been omitted and the rooms have been placed directly against each other. The first rectangular room is covered by a dome, which rests partly on the transversal walls, partly on the two arches.The fourth type is characterized by a square-shaped domed hot room, that is surrounded by small hot rooms.The last group shows a polygonal hot part with niches (alcoves, maksuras), a feature that refers to the octagonal sıcaklık found in Bursa.figure 2. Suggested typology of Ottoman hammams in Greece according to the layout of the hot section.2. Conclusions Regarding the Typology Proposeda. Hammams in the Greek territory do not form original prototypes, since their architectural details match the rhythmological and structural features found allover the Ottoman Empire.Ottoman architects based on a code of constructional techniques and rules of proportion which were applied to the provinces of the Empire, causing a homogeneity in the process of a building’s construction.b. The ground floor plan was adopted by a certain model. State architects tried to establish the main structure of the building under their supervision, after which it was left in the hands of master craftsmen, occasionally oversee by them. It was traditional materials and building techniques which decided the eventual structure of the building, beyond the architect’s very basic plan.c. Craftsmen bore a common vocabulary, which was used for all aspects of building. This is also supported by the following facts, since builders’ corporations, the esnaf, were moving from one place to the other. They applied their construction techniques, in accordance to the ground, regional materials and the financial aid of each donator.3. Construction analysisMasonry — Masonry in the hammams didn’t differ from the one at the other Ottoman buildings which existed in Greece. Their thickness varies from 0,60 m to 1,20 m., while both surfaces of the walls (external - internal) were usually plastered. Due to the lack of maintenance though, only a few traces of plaster remain. Ottoman Turks used local Byzantine construction methods for everyday architecture, but in order to create monumental expression they returned to stone and continued to embellish their buildings alternating brick and stone layers.Openings — external openings-gateways in the facades of some hammams are ornamented with “stalactite” decoration. Internal doors are usually arched in the form of a semicircular or pointed arch, while arches presenting a mixed curvature are also found, a combination of an ogee and “shouldered” arch (flat in the middle with a quarter circle at each side). Lintels can sometimes be with gradual heights, (in the entrances of the two halvet).Domes-Vaults-Coatings — Room are covered with semispherical domes, (some of them lowered), barrel vaults (semicylindrical ones), cloister vaults and occasionally domes with a hyperboloidal profile. At first buildings were roofed in tile, as in Byzantine times, but Ottomans designed special ceramic tiles to fit the curvature of their domes instead of chipping them to size. Once lead became available, it was preferred (kurşunlu=leaded). In Greece most of the still existing hammams are equipped with tiles on top of the vaults, while in a few cases horasan is used (hydraulic mortar like the roman cocciopesto, which contains volcanic rock, sand, slaked lime, broken pottery pieces). –This waterproof plaster coating was also required for the inside of a cistern.Transitional Elements — Vertical loads by the domes were transferred through an externally octagonal drum to the square-plan space. The corners of the drum that was employed were filled internally with transitional elements, such as turkish triangles, squinches (tromp) and pendentives. Most of the domes and vaults were decorated in stucco with mukarnas, that followed the Seljuk tradition.Lighting in the Hammam — Lighting was obtained from top of the domes and vaults, as numerous pottery tubes (either cylindrical, conical or pyramidal) specially prepared were built into the dome overhead to allow daylight into the room below. Bottle-glass covers with a typical raised profile in different patterns (elephant’s eyes) inlaid in the thickness of the dome during construction, were used to cover the tubes, giving the impression of “glass eyes” -it is very likely that they were coloured. These round, square-shaped, polygonal (pentagonal, exagonal, octagonal) or star-shaped openings, often form interesting decorative designs as they are distributed in concentric circles. Placed according to a geometrical design, these light-channels caused a diffuse light to fall into the room below in an everchanging direction. Their disposition around the inner surface of the domes has been methodically analyzed.Technical Equipment . HypocaustFire — The furnace (kűlhan) consisted of an upper water reservoir with a waterproof plaster lining and a fireplace below it, that was continually stoked, in order to maintain the temperature of the cauldron of boiling water. It was built against one wall of the hot room and fire was lit under a copper cauldron (copper warms up very easily, so the heat is transferred easily) built into the furnace.Air — Smoke from the fire and hot air passed along a duct and circulated under the floor of the hot and tepid room, the hypocaust (cehennemlik), before rising up the vertical, ceramic smoke pipes (tűteklik) that were built during the construction in the wall. Vertical ceramic pipes (tűteklik), embedded in the walls, warmed the bath’s rooms, since smoke and hot air circumnavigated through them (fig. 3).Water — Ceramic tubes inserted in the masonry provided basins situated in the warm section of the hammam with hot and cold water from the reservoir.figure 3. Typical section of a hammam in Yannina, 1700