Valide Sultana Hamam, Eger

The Valide Sultan Bath or Valide Sultan Hamam (dry bath) is a historic ruin of a Turkish bath from the Ottoman period in the city of Eger.

Location

It is located at 1‑3 Tinódi Lantos Sebestyén Square (entrance), and at number 19 Kossuth Lajos Street, on the edge of the old town near the main gate of Eger Castle.

History

The building bears the name Valide Sultan, in Hungarian “Mother of the Sultan”. The traveler Evlija Cselebi already mentions it in 1664 together with the nearby, much more fortunate, still operating as a bath today, Arnaut Pasha Bath. After the recapture of Eger it was hardly used as a bath, but only as a grain store, a residential building, later for casting bells. Meanwhile the building continuously fell into ruin. It was only “rediscovered” again in the 19th century. In 1863 Rómer Flóris made a quick survey of it, but no further progress was made for another century regarding the hamam. Only the excavations by Gerő Győző in 1958–1962 uncovered the building. In the following decades a makeshift shed roof, unsuitable for the building and its surroundings, protected it from rain, until in 2013 it was handed over to the public as a museum. By then it had received a Scandinavian‑style wooden shelter built from planks as part of the reconstruction. The Dobó István Castle Museum manages the building.