Carsi Hamam of Mytilene (Market Bath)

The Tsarsi Hamam (Market Bath) is an Ottoman bath and part of the complex of the adjacent Yeni Mosque. It is located in Epano Skala, Mytilene, and is thought to have been built in 1826 by the nazır, Mustafa Ağa Koulaxizis. Its rooms unfold in sequence along its axis, gradually transitioning from the cold room to the warm and then the hot room. To the east, the entrance leads to the first square hall (cold), which had changing rooms and a wooden mezzanine for bathers’ rest. Next is the rectangular warm hall, which communicates eastwards with the latrine and the barber’s. This is followed by the tripartite rectangular hot section of the bath, opposite the entrance of which there is a decorative semicircular niche of the “mihrab” type. On either side of it, doorways lead to two smaller square hot chambers intended for private use. At the southernmost end were the cistern and the furnace room.