Remains of a Turkish Bath, the Hammam Virtual tour: Hamam1
are in the vicinity of the entrance to the Bac Fortress. They are a valuable testimony to 157 years of the Ottoman domination in Backa. It was most probably built after the 1578 census, and Evli Çelebi mentioned it on his visit to Bac in 1665.
It is a small, single bath hammam. In the front section there are remains of a rectangular room (kapaluk), where the visitors could have a rest after bathing. The room led to other two for bathing (halvat). A larger one, almost square in shape, used to have a dome above, and a smaller rectangular one with niches and a barrel vault. At the back there was a small room for water heating (hazna) and a distribution cold water tank (terezie).
On the structure itself there are numerous indications on how the bath functioned: from how the hot and cold water was distributed along the pipes, places where taps were fixed, to the ventilation ducts in the walls, and the remains of the floor heating system (hypocaust) – the small brick pillars, the pilae stacks supporting the floor stone flags, allowing the hot air circulation, and the furnace. The preserved architectural elements clearly define the Levantine type of a settlement. However, to be properly presented, further investigations are necessary.
