17/11/2008
Hamam of the Ottoman period (Buyuk Hamam)

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Buyuk Hamam (=the Big Bath) is located in the Venizelou Street. His founder is still unknown to us; while from archival sources of the end of 19th century, we know that the bath probably belonged to the teke of Seyd Chamebi Kantri (around 17th century.).

We do not know when precisely, the bath ceased its functions. After the liberation, in any case, his interior was already divided and shaped into small shops. This change of use, emanated to the monument a period of scorn; because of serving all these new needs, it suffered a lot of clumsy repairs and additions.

The big bath is an oblong building with two cupolas, which follows the basic form of ground plan of monumental type of public Ottoman baths, with spaces that are ordered linearly following the axis from East to West.

Today the whole group of bath has been incorporated in the newer commercial shops. Shops that are located at No 81 to No 85 Venizelos Street share nowadays, the changing- rooms of the bath: the space of changing- rooms is a big square space, which is covered with bell-shaped cupola (its diameter is 13m.) that surpasses in the scale the whole architectural group, reflecting thus the particularly important social role of this space.

References in Greek language:
Παλιούγκας Θεόδωρος, Η Λάρισα κατά την Τουρκοκρατία (1423-1881), Τόμος Β' (Κατερίνη: Εκδόσεις Μάτι, 2007)