In a wave of awe

The Bath House of the winds is the only public bath of Athens surviving at the present days. It dates from the first period of Turkish rule (1453 – 1669) and stands near the Roman forum and the Tower of the Winds. It functioned as a bathhouse until 1956, and is now the property of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

It has a labyrinthine ground plan, the outcome of modifications and additions detected during the study of the constructional history of the building.

In the first building phase at the time of Turkish domination, the Bath-house in Kyrrestou Street was a single bath, comprising changing rooms and a tepid and hot room. It operated at separate times for men and women.

In the second building phase, about 1870, the character of the Bath-house changed. Through the additional of new rooms and the conversion of old ones, it was converted into a double baths with separate with separate wings for men and women, each with a changing room with a mezzanine, a tepid room and a hot room. An ancillary building contained individual baths, known as “European baths”.

The building complex is completed by an underground furnace, from where the hot air generated by the fuel, was channelled to the hypocausts, and also by a water cistern and the ancillary rooms of the Baths. On the terrace there is a buildingfrom which access may be gained to the open area over the vaults and the furnace. The main bathing rooms are roofed by barrel vaults or domes, in which there are small glazed holes to admit light (phengides / phengite).