In 2010, real estate company the Marmara Group bought the Zeyrek \u00c7inili Hamam site planning to restore and open the hamam within three years, but \u201cit became like an excavation\u2026 as we discovered layers, and all these stories\u201d, founding director Koza Gureli Yazgan tells me over video call from the hamam, as it finally nears its opening date. \u201cThe hamam pulled us into its history, and we couldn\u2019t dare just start operating without sharing that.\u201d
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\nZeyrek \u00c7inili Hamam stands within Istanbul\u2019s Fatih district, old Constantinople, in the neighbourhood of Zeyrek, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The historic bath was commissioned by Hayreddin Barbarossa, the Grand Admiral of the Ottoman Navy, and built by chief Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan in the mid-1500s. \u00c7inili translates as \u2018tiled\u2019, denoting the hamam\u2019s interior, decorated in elaborate iznik tiles that combine traditional Ottoman patterns in cobalt blue and turquoise with the influence of the blue-and-white porcelain of Ming-dynasty China. They adorned the imperial buildings designed by Sinan, a contemporary of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, and the Zeyrek \u00c7inili Hamam was the first example of iznik tiles being applied to a public, communal space \u2014\u00a0with 10,000 tiles in 37 unique patterns lining the walls.
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\nWhen restoration began, there were no tiles left. \u201cDuring excavation, we found tile fragments\u201d, says Koza. \u201cWe traced them, and through working with experts and historians, we were led to European museums who had our tiles in their collections \u2014 the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Louvre, the British Museum. We contacted them to find out more about them, and we will show the patterns through 3D mapping on tile fragments, so people will be able to see how the tiles were during the 16th century.\u201d
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\nThe fragments are part of a process of discovery that uncovered paintings, carvings, objects, and Byzantine cisterns. What had begun as a hamam restoration project became the development of a compound containing a museum, cisterns, and a garden: \u201cthe hamam is only one third of the site. We didn\u2019t plan to build a museum, or have an arts and culture programme, but it turned into this as we discovered everything.\u201d The tile fragments will be shown on a dedicated floor of the museum, in a display designed by Atelier Br\u00fcckner. Alongside them, the museum will display artefacts, and objects associated with the hamam ritual, including Ottoman wooden shoes decorated with precious metals and mother-of-pearl, bowls, and towels. It will detail the complex water and heating system of the hamam, and the public will be able to access the cisterns, view the naval carvings thought to have been created during construction, and experience contemporary audio-visual installations.
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\nThe hamam will be heated and re-open as a bath house next year, but as a way of celebrating the history of the site, and its future as a convivial, communal environment, Gureli Yazgan wanted to open with an exhibition in the rooms of the bathhouse. She approached curator Anlam De Coster with the desire of wanting to share the hamam with as broad an audience as possible. \u201cWhen you experience the traditional hamam ritual, it is more of an inward journey. The exhibition will invite people in to experience the site, and understand the layers of history that were unearthed through the lens of contemporary art\u201d, says Anlam. \u201cThe hamam is charged with history, with symbolism, with incredible characters that carried it until today. Once I began to understand the secrets and myths that were unravelled through the process of restoration, I was hooked.\u201d
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Healing Ruins<\/em>, works are exhibited throughout the building, \u201cexploring the possibilities for transformation at both an individual and societal level\u201d, through the act of repairing ruins, and experiencing ruins as inherently healing in and of themselves. \u201cIt is an intuitive, indirect way of travelling through time. It can be an almost spiritual way of engaging with the hamam\u201d. Twelve artists were invited to make new, site-specific works responding to the history, mythology, and architecture of the hamam, including Lara \u00d6gel, Zo\u00eb Paul and Francesco Albano, which are shown alongside works by Hera B\u00fcy\u00fckta\u015fc\u0131yan, Ay\u00e7a Telgeren, and Marion Verboom.\u00a0\u201cDuring the restoration process, they found poems written in Farsi on the walls. One of the artists is creating a sound installation based on the poems, and interpretations of their meaning. They also found materials from Byzantine crypts and holy sites \u2014\u00a0the central stone in the men\u2019s section has a cross on its reverse side \u2014\u00a0and one of the artists is responding to these \u2018spolia\u2019, both those that were found at the hamam, and imaginary examples that draw from the multiple civilisations built on top of each other in Turkey, using each other\u2019s ruins, fragments, and materials. This work is a beautiful example of how nothing falls from the sky, we are each building on each other\u2019s experiences.\u201d
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\nHamams are traditionally divided into three sections, a cold room with day beds and a fountain, a warm stone room, and a hot room with a heated stone, and they can have either a single of double bath. Rooms are set up in this way to allow for relaxation, slowly adjusting to the heat as your skin softens, ready for laying on the stone for a full body scrub and massage. They have high domes, mirroring the architecture of religious buildings, with dappled light casting shadows that dance over the interior from the constellation of skylights scattered over the ceiling.
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\nSinan\u2019s hamams are known for their symmetry and acoustics. Informed by his approach to designing mosques, his knowledge of Byzantine architecture and engineering meant that as well as being beautiful, elaborate structures, his buildings were reinforced for earthquakes and had complex water systems that allowed the hamam to self-sustain. \u201cHe used every water source, from rain water to the cisterns [below the hamam], because he was commissioned by Hayreddin Barbarossa, they had special water permits and used a network called Forty Fountains\u201d Koza tells me. During the restoration project, with architectural designers KA-BA, they made use of modern technology, but hid it either underneath the hamam or in neighbouring buildings: \u201cIn the historic parts, you can\u2019t see anything contemporary\u201d, Koza says. The closest thing to a modern intervention in the hamam is the woodwork that lines the dressing rooms, a practice that was introduced in the 18th century.
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\nHamams have historically been integral to communal life, and a place where people would gather for important gatherings and celebrations. It was especially true for women, who \u201cwould get together to eat, share, and gossip\u201d, says Koza. \u201cHamams have lost this role, and become touristic spaces. We hope that through arts and culture programming, we can regain this sense of community and belonging.\u201d<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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