Eger, Tinódi Sebestyén tér 3. (Dózsa György tér 1., later Dobó István utca 7.)
Built beside the gates of Eger Castle, the ruins of the former Valide Sultan Baths can once again be seen after a long period of neglect (Figure 106). Once archaeological research was complete, the ruins had to wait for decades to be decent-ly presented, and as a consequence some parts have deteriorated even further. As a result of restoration work completed in 2013, the remains of this building can now be visited once more. In one half of the building the walls remain to the height of the arches, while the other half has been demolished to floor level during modern construction work. The size of the entire building, however, gives a clear sense of the character of each of the rooms as one walks around it.
Figure 106 . The ruins of the Valide Sultan Baths in Eger today
Founder: unknown
Constructed: around 1600
Ottoman era name: Valide Sultan Hamami (Baths of the sultan’s mother)
Type: steam baths
Floorplan type: cross-shaped (A type) (Figure 107) Director of excavation: Győző Gerő
Year of excavation: 1958, 1962, 1984–1988
Publications: gErő 1980, pp. 106–109, gErő 1972, pp. 276–280 HISTORY
We know next to nothing about the history of these baths. Neither the precise date of completion nor the original name are known. When the town was retaken, the building, as with other steam baths, was used, but no longer as baths. Despite that, sources from the mid 18th century also refer to them as Turkish baths. Its last room was demolished in 1856, and the entire baths were uncovered in the excavations lead by Győző Gerő.
DESCRIPTION OF THE BUILDING
Extending northeast to southwest, the baths stood close to the castle gates. The northwestern wall remains standing to the height of the arches, while the rest has been raised to the foundations. Small areas of its pink and red plaster can still be seen.
The entrance hall
The stone flags of the entrance hall and the stone benches that lined the walls remain, the location of the fountain at the centre is also clear-ly visible, too. The water mains carried the water from the southern corner of the room to the fountain. Exposed breastwork indicates the location of the niches in the extant walls. The entrance to the baths was not in the axis of the room, but rather in its southeastern corner. The entrance to the warm room was in the middle of the southwestern wall.
Figure 107 . Floorplan to the ruins of the Valide Sultan Baths in Eger, 1989
105 I X . I N T RODUC T ION TO T H E ARC H I T EC T U R AL R E M AI NS OF T H E T U R K ISH BAT H BU IL DI NGS OF H U NGARY
The warm rooms
The rectangular room is divided into two parts: from the eastern corner a narrow corridor leads alongside a smaller seperated area to the toilet. Across most of the room, only the support columns of the floor heating system are visible, but in the western corner only we find the remains of the stone flags from Ottoman era. Impressions can be found in the pink plasterwork. In the south western wall some fragments of the water pipes are visible. Set on the stone wallbench in the larger room was a wall fountain, and it seems highly likely that there was also one in the smaller room, although the walls have deteriorated so much that the level of the water pipes is not discernable.
The toilet
The function of the small square room attached to the outside of the southeastern wall is evident in the broad drain leading out of the building.
The hot room
The former decorative design of the baths can only be reconstructed on the basis of the elevated parts of the western wall. Regrettably, due to neglect in the decades following the initial research, the walls have been dete-riorating since the excavations. The arrangement of the room follows the classical conventions: the private baths in the four corners are divided into almost equal sizes that open from the central area—the most common ar-rangement for this floorplan type. At the centre of the room, the location of a probably octagonal naval stone is indicated by the support columns from the under-floor-heating system (Figure 108). Between the private baths wall fountains ran from niches.
The private baths
The individual baths were placed one in each corner and covered by a cupola, the dome of which was sup-ported by spandrels from the corners. The walls were decorated with niches, and fountains were placed on the main supporting walls in which water pipes could be sited. Evliya Chelebi counted six
hal-vets,134 but we don’t know how he came to that figure Figure 108 . The hot room of the Valide Sultan Baths during its excavation (1980s)
because if they had also led here then there would have been seven or eight, and if he counted the warm small room, then there would have been five.
The boiler room
The area described by the walls is divided into two areas. The cistern was situated over the underfloor-heating support pillars, and the southern part was used as a woodstore from whence the furnace was fed that warmed the water.