Paphos Hamam

Mediaeval and ottoman baths have their origins in the Roman and Byzantine Periods. They combine the functionality and architectural features from the roman thermae and the byzantine baths with the Arab and ottoman tradition of steam bathing. Like their Roman predecessors, they consist of adjacent cold, warm and hot rooms.

The Chrysopolitissa bath waspart of a larger complex built during the Medieval period and modified in latertimes. It consistsof two domed rooms and two smaller rooms with a barrel vault roof placed on the long sides of a narrow entrance hall. The heatingtechnology of the bath closely follows its Byzantine and Roman prototypes, employing a floor-heating system (hypocaust). Fire was lit in a furnace located in the back of the building block. It heated directly the water of the bronze boiler placed in a small closed chamber, as it heated indirectly the bath’s floor, which was supported on low pillars. Hot gasses and smoke circulated under the floors before they were drawn out by the flues embedded in the thick walls. The hot room was placed closest to the furnace. Clay pipes distributed hot water from the boiler to the hot room. On the walls are visible the traces of the water faucets, under which small basins used to be placed. During bathing, water splashing on the warm stone slabs of the floor evaporated, creating a steam bath. The bath rooms have no windows. They are lit by perforations οn the domes and thevaulted roofs, which used to be closed with round thick glass.