Moorish Baths Granada
by Joan Carroll
Title
Moorish Baths Granada
Artist
Joan Carroll
Medium
Photograph - Digital Art
Description
If you didn't have a bathroom several centuries ago when Granada was a Moorish city (and who did?), the hammam is where you went. El Banuelo was built in the 11th century to serve the Mosque that once stood adjacent to it; the money earned from the baths was used by the Mosque for maintenance. The bath house was then known as Hammam al Yawza (The Bath of The Walnut Tree) or the Axares, the latter alluding to the name of the area where the baths were originally built: The Axares Quarter - literally meaning 'health' or 'pleasure'. These baths were constantly praised by Moorish poets for their climate and beautiful architecture. The hamman (baths) was a key place of social interaction in addition to being a place to wash. Muslims believed water was a symbol of purity, and so used it to cleanse their bodies, while the Christians, on the other hand, believed this to be decadent and heathen behavior. So when the Christians took over many of them were destroyed. This bath house is unique because it is still completely intact, and it is one of the most ancient baths still standing in Spain. There were no signs around but from my reading, this was the 'warm room' located between the cold and hot rooms. The rooms had hollow floors, which were heated from below ground by the boiler; as a result the floor became so hot that it was necessary for the bathers to wear protective footwear, in the form of wooden clogs. In the roof of the bath houses you see star shaped vents, designed to be opened when the heat from the chamber became too great. The vents were stained glass, so that during the day they let in light and gave the impression of bathing under the night sky. You don't see a pool here since Muslims like to scoop water and splash themselves rather than soak, as the Romans did.
FEATURED PHOTO, Spain Photography and Paints group, 5/5/15
FEATURED PHOTO, Spanish Theme Artwork group, 4/28/15
Uploaded
April 28th, 2015
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