Baths

Baths were a prominent feature of urban life in Byzantine times, since few houses had their own water supply. Apart from their central function as places for cleaning the body, baths also served as a hub of social life, a meeting point and entertainment venue where the Byzantines spent a great part of their day. City dwellers, and above all women, who had few opportunities to appear in public, could enjoy their bath, meet friends and exchange views on all sorts of issues.

Bathhouses had distinctive architecture and were lavishly decorated on the interior with mosaics, marble floors, paintings and statues. Special technology was employed to transport and heat water. In its simplest form, a bathhouse included the following main areas:  changing rooms and toilets in the hall, cold and warm bath rooms, and finally the hot baths, where the body perspired and was cleaned for the last time. The hot baths were heated by a hypocaust, a system that used a low basement area and a raised floor resting on dense rows of rectangular clay pipes. Hot air from a charcoal furnace circulated below the floor.

The baths were open every day of the week, even on Sundays. They were usually visited in the morning or afternoon, or perhaps in the evening, by people of both sexes regardless of age and social class. Most bathhouses were in pairs, with separate entrances and wings for men and women, but a common hypocaust installation. Alternatively, men visited the baths at different days or times from women. Visitors paid admission fees, though on certain days of the year admission was free to the public.

Medical records of the period prescribed the frequency of baths depending on the month; each monastery rule likewise specified the number of baths per year for each monk. Despite the Church’s austere stance on the use of bathhouses, even clerics would visit them.

From the 7^th century onwards, large bathhouses baths fell into disuse due to population shrinkage, water scarcity and high maintenance costs. This resulted in a significant reduction in their number and size, not only in the capital but also in the provinces. At the same time, their function was restricted exclusively to washing.

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