HISTORIC BATH
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Banya's
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01
Welcome
OTTOMAN HAMMAM "MURTINA BATH"
“A city is perfect only, when there is a bath in it” – said Abu Sir, one of the first Arabic historians. And indeed – making baths was so important in the past, that it was recommended if someone has a sin, to build a bath and his sin will be forgiven. Thus – with a donation of a wealthy Turkish family the Turkish bath in the village of Banya was built, it was known as “Murtina bath”. The bath is typical for the Ottoman public baths on the Balkans, built in the period 15-20 century. It is believed that it has been built in the 17th century because of the similar architecture with the Old Bulgarian bath.
The Turkish bath is built with 2 entrances because the Turks have a belief that one should go inside the bath with the left foot through the left door before taking a bath, and after that - went out through the right one. For the warm waters of the Turkish bath, they used “Blagata voda” (the Sweet water) with temperature of 54 degrees. The mineral water was mixed with the cold water from the river that directly flowed under the bath.
The Turkish bath was used till the 50s of the 20th century and after its restoration in 2012, every tourist can feel the authentic atmosphere of the bath, visiting the richest of mineral springs village of Banya.
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04
Historic Bath
THE OLD BULGARIAN (ROMAN) BATH
The healing waters of the "Roman bath"
A wonderful symbol of the village of Banya, preserved through the centuries and withstood the changes of time, is the mineral bath, known as Old Bulgarian (Roman) bath, built in typical Roman style.
The Roman bath has a specific construction - sequence of stone row with 3-4 rows flat baked bricks. The bath has a hypocaust heating system, the walls have built-in wall channels through which hot water ran and so it extra warmed the bath, thus creating a cozy atmosphere even during the cold winter days. There are niches in the walls where people taking a bath left their belongings. Even today, the old hangers have been preserved. There is also a small niche, in which a fire was lit and used as a light; on the dome you can see a few openings, which had the same purpose. preserved till today is also a water mixer. Through it passed the hot (54 degrees centigrade) and the cold water, thus mixing to make the perfect temperature for bathing. The pool has its original pavement on the bottom; the troughs in the bath are not authentic. After the restoration they are made of marble in order to show the contrast between the bath in the past and nowadays.
