Water and Healing Route · Stop 4

Yıldız Bathhouse

It may be the oldest bathhouse on this route — and it is still working. It has four different names and its date of construction is unknown, but its name appears in an endowment deed of 1409.

Before 1409 Hatuniye Complex Still a bathhouse today

The bank of the Yeşilırmak: on the left a minaret and domed buildings within a courtyard wall, on the right a timber mansion with a projecting upper floor, above it the rock-cut tombs of the kings — **The Hatuniye waterfront.** On the left the **minaret** and, within the courtyard wall, **domed buildings**; on the right the **Hazeranlar Mansion**; above, the **tombs of the kings** carved into the rock. The Yıldız Bathhouse is part of this complex.¹ *Hüseyin Menç Archive.* Because no source confirms which dome in the picture belongs to the bathhouse, it is not marked here.

📜 What do the documents say?

The bathhouse is part of the Hatuniye Complex — the complex consists of the Hatuniye Mosque, the primary school (sıbyan mektebi) and this bathhouse.¹

Its original date of construction is not known for certain. But a document shows by when, at the latest, it existed: the bathhouse's name appears in the Yakut Paşa endowment deed — which proves that the bathhouse already existed before the complex.²

So the order is reversed: first there was the bathhouse, and the complex was founded beside it later. “Before 1409” is not a date of construction but the date of a mention in a document.²

An exception on this route

Its function continues today —
it is still used as a bathhouse.²

Most of the other buildings on the route are museums, ruins or closed. This one still does its own job: it has been washing people for six hundred years.

It has four names

Yıldız Hamamı Hatuniye Hamamı Çelebiler Hamamı Çukur Hamam

All four appear in the sources.² The Site Management Plan lists the building directly as the “Hatuniye (Çelebiler-Yıldız) Hamamı”.²

The name “Çelebiler Hamamı” opens onto a puzzle. Mustafa Vâzıh Efendi says that within the walls there were two buildings known as the Çelebiler Hamamı: one is this Çukur Hamam, the other the Yukarı Hamam (the Upper Bath).³ That among the charitable works endowed in the deed of the Yakut Paşa Zaviye there is a “Çelebiler Hamamı” within the walls supports this; Kuzucular writes that “since there is no other illuminating document either”, what Vâzıh says can be accepted.³

How old is it?

There is no definite answer to this question, and the sources diverge here. This page takes no side.

Hüseyin Hüsameddin — 12th century

Saying that he relies on archival documents, but without citing a source, he claims that this bathhouse was built by Rıdvan Bey, one of the emirs of the Seljuk Sultan Mesud I.³

Kuzucular — doubtful

Since the Rıdvan Bathhouse named in the Halifet Gazi endowment deed is understood to have been outside the walls, this building may be another bathhouse built by Emir Rıdvan — or the information H. Hüsameddin passes on is wrong.³

There is one point on which the two meet. Kuzucular writes that the bathhouse's position close to the original level of the Alçak Bridge shows it to be one of the oldest Turkish buildings in Amasya.³

There is a small difference in the year of the endowment deed too: the record the book relies on speaks of the Yakut Paşa endowment deed of 1409;² Kuzucular, however, gives the deed of the Yakut Paşa Zaviye as dated 1407.³ Either way the result is the same: the bathhouse already existed at the beginning of the 15th century.

What is inside?

The building is entered from the west. Its sections are:²

EntranceFrom the west façade.

Cool roomWhere you undress and rest.

Warm roomA transitional space of intermediate temperature.

ToiletsRecorded as a separate section.

Hot roomThe main bathing area.

FurnaceThe firing place where the water is heated.

The building is lit naturally through the windows, lanterns and skylights in its domes and vaults.² The Amasya City Guide also describes the bathhouse as square in plan and covered by a dome with a lantern.¹

The sources differ a little on the material: the study of the fabric of the Hatuniye neighbourhood says the building was built of dressed stone in load-bearing masonry;⁴ the Site Management Plan records that it was built of stone and brick in load-bearing masonry.²

Look at where the light comes from

The inside of a bathhouse is misty with steam; opening windows in the side walls lets the heat escape. The answer is always overhead. This building too is lit naturally through the windows, lanterns and skylights in its domes and vaults.²

If you can go in — and on this route it is one of the few buildings you can enter² — stand in the hot room, raise your head and count: how many openings, how many shafts of light? The more steam there is, the more visible those shafts become.

If you are looking from outside, look for the small lantern on top of the dome. It has been doing the same job for six hundred years.

While you are there, look for

The lantern and skylights on top of the dome.^1, 2
The west façade. The entrance is there.²
The material of the walls. Dressed stone, or alternating stone and brick? The sources part ways here;^2, 4 look with your own eyes.
The mosque and school beside it. The three together make up the Hatuniye Complex.¹
Down at the Alçak Bridge. The bathhouse's closeness to that bridge's original level is counted as evidence of its age.³
Up at the rock. From this bank you can see the tombs of the kings.

Key facts

Date: Unknown — before 1409; its name appears in an endowment deed²
Built by: Disputed — see above³
Part of: The Hatuniye Complex¹
Other names: Hatuniye Hamamı, Çelebiler Hamamı, Çukur Hamam²
Plan: Square, dome with a lantern¹
Sections: Entrance, cool room, warm room, toilets, hot room, furnace²
Material: Dressed stone⁴ or stone and brick² — load-bearing masonry
Today: Still used as a bathhouse²
Location: 40.652034, 35.8291169 — verified from an external source
In the book: Kültürel Miras Boyutuyla Amasya, p. 54

This bathhouse is not recorded in OpenStreetMap; its coordinates were verified from Kültür Envanteri and Wikidata records. The Hatuniye Mosque is at 40.652057, 35.829143 in OSM — the bathhouse adjoins it.¹

Sources

Every factual statement on this page rests on one of the sources below. Titles are given in their original Turkish so that they can be found; quotations from them are our translations.

Amasya Valiliği, Amasya Şehir Rehberi (Amasya: Amasya Valiliği, 2013), 21-23. — The Hatuniye Complex and the Yıldız Bathhouse.
Amasya Harşena Dağı ve Pontus Kral Kaya Mezarları Alan Yönetim Planı ve UNESCO Dünya Mirası Başvuru Dosyası (Amasya: Amasya Belediyesi, 2022), 63, 65. — The names and the record of 1409 (63); the architectural description of the Hatuniye (Çelebiler) Hamamı and its present use (65).
Kani Kuzucular, Amasya Kentinin Fiziksel Yapısının Tarihsel Gelişimi (İstanbul: İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, Doktora Tezi, 1994), 45-46.
Emine Türkoğlu, Amasya İli, Hatuniye Mahallesi Geleneksel Yerleşim Dokusunun Analizi, Değerlendirilmesi ve Koruma Geliştirme Önerisi (Ankara: Gazi Üniversitesi Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, Yüksek Lisans Tezi, 2006), 54.

The founder and the date of construction are disputed. The sources do not agree on these two points; the page shows the divergence and takes no side.