Bursa Hamams from the Eyes of Western Travelers in the 19th Century
Tarih ve Kültür Penceresinden Su ve Sağlık İlişkisi Uluslararası Sempozyumu, İstanbul, Turkey, 10 - 11 June 2019, pp.181-200, (Full Text)
- Publication Type: Conference Paper / Full Text
- City: İstanbul
- Country: Turkey
- Page Numbers: pp.181-200
- Open Archive Collection: AVESIS Open Access Collection
- Istanbul University Affiliated: Yes
Abstract
The lands that Ottoman Empire, which embraced various civilizations over the centuries, lived in are treasure with its cultural richness. One of the cities that refl ect the cultural richness of the Ottoman Empire is the city of Bursa. With this characteristic, Bursa is of interest to foreign travelers for centuries. We see that travelers who visited Bursa came to the city for diff erent purposes. Since the 15th century, many foreign diplomats, merchants and missionaries visited the city, especially to research the Ottoman palace in here. And some travelers came to make geographical and archaeological researches along with historical researches about Bursa, an important historical city. And a large part of travelers had been in Bursa for touristic purposes. Since 15th century, the number of foreigners, who came for visiting, has continuously increased and has reached its peak in 19th century. When looked at the 19th century, alongside the social life and cultural richness in the city generally, it is seen that hammams are drawing the attention of travelers. Also, in order to prevent the possible epidemic diseases in social city life, it was encouraged that the foreigners who came to city from outside to go to hammams. Therefore, it was thought that hammams are important in terms of health. Most of the travelers were stated their thoughts about hammams, which have great importance in life as well as in terms of health. The travelers have told about hammams, which they have found them diff erent, in their travel books in detail. The physical structures of hammams, which they described as a social gathering places, were also arose their interest. They stated that their buildings were clean and well maintained as their waters have healing powers. The art historian travelers were also found hammams interesting and told the architecture of the structures and their artistic features detailed in their works. The Ottoman Empire built many hammams in Bursa. Today, a large part of these hammams are being used as cultural centers by renovating or they serve as true hammams.