Ottoman Baths of Paphos

The Ottoman Baths of Paphos are located in the homonymous city, below Petraki Miltiadou street, near the Municipal Market of Paphos and are one of the many cultural attractions in the homonymous province.

A stone-built classical building of the Ottoman period with a dome that operated until the 20th century, and in particular until 1925, the Ottoman Baths of Paphos were built in 1592 by Mehmet Bey Ebubekir, governor of the province, and had become an important social center for Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriot residents of the so-called “Ktima (Estate)“ area. Later, during the British domination of Cyprus, the site was used for a short time as a museum.

The baths were one of the first works that the Ottomans built after the conquest of a city, since, according to their doctrine, believers of all sexes had to be washed with running water before entering a mosque for prayer. As a space, they consist of three parts, the reception area, the intermediate area and the main baths, and operated from early morning until early afternoon for women and children, while in the evening hours only men were admitted.

The “Cool Room,” served as a locker room and was generally the place to prepare, wait, rest and groom after the bath. They usually had a wooden pallet and divans, while there was a fountain in the center.

The "Warm Room" was a moderately heated space for the gradual adaptation of the body to the heat, with benches for rest and grooves (marble basins) for washing.

The "Hot Room", the main space of the Turkish hamam, was a very warm room with a temperature of 30-40 degrees Celsius, with a raised floor in the form of a platform in the center for the massage (the stone of the navel, denoting the center of the room), and where the clients would lie for a rubbing. There were also troughs of running water here. This room communicated with other rooms, small, individual rooms in which the temperature exceeded 40 degrees.

The complex was complemented by other auxiliary sanitary facilities, lavatories, an epilation room and more.

In the area behind the hamam, two workers cut large pieces of wood with a saw in order to keep the fire burning in the large water cauldron all day long. The area had plenty of hot and cold water, the necessary equipment (wooden shoes and towels) but also staff, such as the bather, the trelakena and others. Trelakena was the main person in charge in the bath, since she would wash the young children, soap the backs of the men and women and comb the hair of the women. After the bath, the women and the children dressed and went to the side room, the “ksoloutri”, to rest and eat what they had brought with them. The baths, also known as Ebubekir, ceased to function in 1925 when water was brought inside the houses, turning the space into an empty and useless building.

The Ottoman Baths of Paphos have been restored in the early 1990s, with the funding of the Municipality of Paphos in cooperation with the management of the Turkish Cypriot properties and the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus and they function as a Cultural Center of the Municipality. It is accessible for those who want to see them nearby, while next to it there is a beautiful cafeteria to combine a visit with a coffee at a very beautiful and historic spot in the city.

In addition to the Ottoman Baths, the visitor has the opportunity to see the Medieval and Ottoman Baths of Kato Paphos next to Panagia Chrysopolitissa and the Apostle Paul’s Pillar.