The owners of a Spanish bar in Seville discovered a "hammam" completely covered with drawings, engravings and decorations hidden and protected in the structure of the place that was used as a tapas restaurant (small dishes with squid, olives or cheese) and a popular pub in the ancient city.
In a report published by the Spanish newspaper "El Pais", the writer Margot Molina said that this bathhouse, located on Mateus Gago Street near Seville Cathedral, was one of the busiest Islamic baths during the past century.
However, clients did not flock to shower as it was at the time of its construction in the twelfth century.
The author pointed out that the restoration and reconstruction work - which was supervised by the regional engineer, Vicente Traver, at the beginning of the twentieth century, to convert the building into a hotel - concealed the bathroom built by the Almohads during the twelfth century, but preserved it as well.
This hammam has been rediscovered thanks to the restoration work that began last summer.
Although popular culture indicates that a pigeon was located on the site, many other locals consider this a myth or rumor, and this landmark contains high-quality frescoes covering the entire area and is unique to the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal).
bombshell
The author quoted archaeologist Alvaro Jimenez, “The most important point is that the bathroom is completely covered with drawings, from top to bottom, and decorated with high-quality geometric motifs. Good was on the cellars and walls. It is the only Islamic bathhouse that has an integrated decoration. "
"The discovery of this hammam is an amazing surprise," says archaeologist Fernando Amores, who participated in the research. "It may give us an idea of what other baths were like during the Almohad period, especially in Seville, which was one of the imperial capitals, along with Marrakesh. The architecture of this bath is very close to architecture." The Great Mosque of Granada, also built in the twelfth century, explains the development of its richest decoration.
Bathroom skylights
As soon as you enter the "Giralda tavern", one of the busiest places at the archaeological site, you will discover skylights that allow light to pass through in the ceilings of various shapes.
These maneuvers have contributed to changing the course of the restoration work, and made the project managers wager on restoring the entire Islamic bath.
Fran Diath, the architect responsible for the restoration and rehabilitation, has indicated that the 202-square-meter building will be directed to the same activity it was designed for upon completion of the restoration work next month.
Most old baths have multiple sections, including a warm, hot, and steam room.
The structure contained skylights for ventilation and lighting, and many decorations and inscriptions (Al-Jazeera)
It turns out that the entrance to the Al-Khairalda Bar was previously the warm room of this bathroom with a central plan: a square area of 6.70 meters with an octagonal dome standing on 4 columns, next to which is a rectangular cold room measuring 10.4 meters by 13 meters.
The pub kitchen was the hot room, but only the arch in the entrance was left.
During the excavations, 88 sunroofs (skylights) of various shapes and sizes were saved, which are more accurate and numerous compared to those found in other baths built during the same period.
Amores added, "The skylights fall within the decorative grid of the bathroom and are surrounded by Islamic-style drawings that follow a regular pattern and take the form of an eight-pointed star and have a quad-lobed design. It is remarkable that the drawings inside the arch in the warm room are a zigzag that resembles water. They usually symbolize the various styles of art." Islamic to heaven. "
Islamic inscriptions on the walls of the discovered bathhouse (French)
This Almohad bath is not only distinguished in terms of Islamic art drawings, but also in the number of rows of skylights that illuminate the cold room, which is 5 rows, and it is usually only 3 or one row in the modest bathrooms.
The cold room, which has been used as a dining room for nearly a century, was nearly two meters long when Mateus Gago Street was expanded in 1928.
Restoration work
These works resulted in the removal of drawings from all the walls, and the restoration was undertaken by the Andalusian company "Garis", which won the National Restoration Prize in 2013. The drawings were also covered due to subsequent interventions and due to a carbonate layer formed due to moisture over time.
An introductory plaque in the bath indicates that it dates back to the time of the Almohad Sultan Abu Ya`qub Yusuf (died 18 Rabi` al-Akhir 580 AH / July 29, 1184), the second successor to the Almohads who ruled the Maghreb and Andalusia between 1163 and 1184 from the capital of his state, Marrakesh, and was killed in the Siege of Shantine in Andalusia.
An introductory board in the bathroom with the name of the Almohad Sultan Abu Yaqoub (French) written on it
Archaeologist José Manuel Rodriguez Hidalgo, a member of the Regional Committee for the Historical Heritage of Seville, confirmed that he supports and continues the rehabilitation and restoration process, noting that they “are making unremitting efforts due to the uniqueness and value of this bathroom. The project who bore the cost of all that was implemented.
An important restoration took place during the seventeenth century, which included demolishing the dome of the warm room and building a very low dome to raise one floor.
According to Alvaro Jimenez, who conducted his doctoral thesis on the ruins of the Almohad Mosque that forms the base of the current Seville Cathedral, "the building gave it an Italian character by replacing the original columns with others made of Genoa marble, with all the skylights closed."
The Arab baths are witnessing a great turnout of citizens in various cities of Spain and attract foreign tourists, especially from America, France, Germany and Italy, as it allows them to enjoy the historical atmosphere of Andalusia and try to live part of its beautiful past.