Buried for centuries beneath a square in Cordoba, the Banos del Alcazar Califal are the excavated remains of a royal Islamic bathhouse, among the best preserved of their kind in Spain. They lie in the Campo Santo de los Martires, close to the great Mosque-Cathedral and the Alcazar of the Christian Monarchs. The baths were built in the 10th century, during the reign of Caliph al-Hakam II, when Cordoba was the capital of the Umayyad caliphate of al-Andalus and one of the largest cities in the world. They served the adjoining caliphal palace, the forerunner of the present Alcazar. A visit follows the sequence of an Andalusi hammam, moving through cold, warm and hot rooms, with the service area of furnace and boiler at its heart. The chambers are roofed with brick vaults pierced by star-shaped skylights that once let daylight filter down onto the bathers. The complex was altered and extended in later centuries under the Taifa and Almohad rulers, who added further rooms, so that the surviving remains record several phases of construction rather than a single moment. After the Christian conquest of the city in the 13th century the baths fell out of use and were eventually covered over, lying forgotten beneath the square. They were uncovered by chance, glimpsed during building work and again during gardening, before being systematically excavated in the early 1960s. Because they were buried for so long, the remains are unusually intact, keeping their original vaults, floor levels and column positions rather than relying on heavy reconstruction. The site opened to the public as a museum in 2006, presented with displays, audiovisual material and a reconstructed Andalusi garden that set the baths in their historical context. Small and quietly visited, it offers a close look at the everyday refinement of caliphal Cordoba, complementing the grander monuments nearby.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: Plaza Campo Santo de los Martires, Córdoba, Spain

Opening Date: 01/10/2006