Arab Baths

1294

This archaeological site from the 12th and 13th centuries consists of a rectangular building that once was a “hammam”, a public bathhouse. All that remains above ground level is a rectangular structure measuring 8 metres long by 4 metres wide that was the warm room. It was built with thin rectangular bricks laid in a stretcher bond, covered by an elongated vault with eight-pointed star openings to let in light.

The baths underwent modifications in contemporary times when the original entrances were bricked up, and a new one was opened in the south wall. The Arab baths of Palomares have the distinctive feature of being the only ones of their kind in Seville’s rural area.

The baths consisted of three rooms (cold, warm and hot) and a vestibule or changing room interconnected by a corridor.

The changing room is severely damaged during the construction of the former road to Gelves built during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera. The cold room (al-bayt al-barid) is destroyed, and all that remains are the springers on the walls. The warm room (al-bayt al-wastani), on the other hand, is the only one that remains complete. The hot room (al-bayt al-sajun) preserves part of the original floor at the ends of the room. Two quadrangular baths, also known as immersion pools, can be seen. Between the two pools was the access to the boiler and the woodshed.

The baths were excavated and restored in 2001, after being declared a Site of Cultural Interest by the Andalusian Regional Government.

Labels

ACI (Asset of Cultural Interest)

Moorish baths