Eski Kaplıca
Bursa's most important early Ottoman thermal monument, also known as Armutlu Hamamı, with an impressive columned bathing hall and large circular pool.
- Period: Murad I era
- Date: c. 1385
- Status: UNESCO World Heritage component
Bursa grew on the northern slopes of Uludağ in a landscape rich in springs, streams and thermal water.
Long before modern spa hotels appeared, these hot waters attracted communities who developed bathing places around them.
By the early Ottoman period, thermal bathing had become deeply connected with the city's social and architectural development.
The importance of Çekirge becomes especially clear during the reign of Sultan Murad I.
His monumental Hüdavendigar Complex helped extend Bursa westward, and the nearby thermal zone became part of that expanding urban landscape.
The relationship was so strong that the small bath inside the Hüdavendigar complex could remain modest because the great Eski Kaplıca was close at hand.
Later Ottoman patrons continued investing in the area.
Baths were repaired, enlarged, endowed and newly constructed.
By the sixteenth century, Bursa had developed a sophisticated thermal culture in which monumental architecture surrounded the natural hot-water sources.
What makes the district unusual today is its continuity of function.
Several historic structures are still associated with bathing rather than having been converted entirely into museums, shops or event halls.
That continuity gives Çekirge a rare quality: you are not only looking at the architecture of an old hamam. You are entering a neighbourhood where the relationship between water, bathing and urban life has survived for centuries.
