Hammam (Ottoman Baths)
The Ottoman baths (hammam) in the Agios Ioannis area of Larnaka city - near Tuzla Mosque - were restored in 2023. The project was financed by the EU through the UNDP Program (United Nations Development Programne) and the Bi-Communal Technical Committee for Cultural Heritage.
The complex consists of bathing rooms on the ground floor and a residence on the first floor. Although no prior references are available for dating, it is known to have been privately owned and in public use during the 1940s and 1950s.
The hammam complex consists of one cold, one tepid and two hot rooms; a closed water cistern and a hypocaust area with a hearth where a fire burned to heat the water and bath spaces. The underground hypocaust is a heating system dating back to Roman times.
A large, high-ceiling room opened out to the courtyard and served as a reception area and changing room (cold room). After leaving their clothing there, customers passed through a vaulted corridor (tepid space) and then into the warm areas of the baths, consisting of two heated rooms without doors and windows and with dome roofs. Bathers used hot and cold water from the taps located inside the heated rooms. After their bath they returned to the reception area where they rested until their body returned to its normal temperature.
Both the baths and the residence have been declared ancient monuments by the Department of Antiquities.