Spain: The discovery of former Arab hammam date back to Almohad caliphate

Spain: The discovery of former Arab hammam date back to Almohad caliphate
June 19, 2021, 4:52 am

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Archaeologists recently unearthed a 12th-Century bathhouse inside a Spanish tapas bar. The hammam dates from the days when the southern Spanish city was ruled by the Almohad caliphate, a Berber Empire that once reigned over much of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. Spain

Its discovery helps paint a better picture of urban Islamic life in 12th-Century Seville.

BBC Travel reported that historians believe these bathhouses were used by devotees to cleanse themselves before entering the mosque to pray. They also likely served as gathering places to socialise, talk business or just relax. Perhaps it's fitting, then, that instead of being turned into a museum, this hammam-turned-tapas bar is still a place to meet, chat and let your cares wash away. Spain

Its discovery was in last summer in Spain, as the coronavirus pandemic ground business to a halt at the Cervicería Giralda tapas bar in Seville's historical centre, the owners of the 98-year-old eatery decided the time was right for some much-needed renovation. As workers began peeling back the plaster covering the bar's soaring columns and chipping away at its vaulted ceilings, they were astonished by what they found.

Buried beneath the paint were the remains of a remarkably ornate Islamic hammam from the 12th Century, complete with skylights carved in the form of eight-pointed stars and elaborate red ochre paintings of geometric motifs representing the night sky.

The Islamic bathhouse is the latest of several former bathhouses that have been identified around the city's central Mudéjar-style mosque, the Royal Alcázar. palace. Spain

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Source: BBC Travel

Image Source: Getty Images-BBC

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