Monuments

Sidirokausia: History – Location

The Ottoman city of Sidirokausia flourished between the 15th and the 17th centuries at the west side of the modern village of Stageira in Chalcidice. An important mining activity had already been conducted in this area since the Byzantine era. The swift growth of the town occurred during the first centuries of the Ottoman rule when the Sultans showed a notable interest for the silver mines of Sidirokausia. Siderokapsa or Sidrekaissi was the principal city of the homonymous nahiyesi (i.e. province) and the most important urban center as it is evidenced on the one hand from the mint and on the other hand from the spread of the ruins. At the beginning of the 18th century, due to the fall of the mining production, the city declined. The Revolution against the Ottoman Turks, 1821, resulted to the devastation of Chalcidice and the utter destruction and abandonment of Sidirokausia.

One of the public buildings of the city, which was preserved in a very good condition, is the hammam. İshak Paşa, a grand Vizier and later on a Vali of Thessalonike, founded the hammam probably before 1487, and the income was addressed in the establishment of Alaca İmaret in Thessaloniki. 

Beside the bath it was unearthed a mosque along with a stone-paved street (kaldırım) on the southwest that connects these two buildings with the settlement.

Ottoman Hammam – Conservation Works

The bath consists of three lined-up functional spaces: on the south there is the square, cold, disrobing room (soyunmalîk), subsequently, the elongated tepid section (soğukluk) and in the end the spacious hot room (sîcaklîk) with two square private rooms (halvet). On the north side, there is the water tank (hazna) where the water was heated through a cauldron incorporated to the floor. Smoke was channeled from the fireplace through the flooring with a hypocaust system to heat the rooms. In the tepid and the hot rooms the walls were covered with a bicolor coating decorated with a line of stylized anthemions. The domes were decorated with embossed stalactites and star-shaped openings for lighting purposes.

The Ephorate of Antiquities of Chalcidice and Mt Athos carried out the conservation works at the bath in the framework of the programme ‘Macedonia-Thrace 2007-2013’. The bath was restored as an enclosed space with the exception of the cold room and the water tank. Consolidation and restoration works were done on the bath walls. The entrance, the stone-paved floor with the marble base of the fountain and the perimetric divan with niches to store the bathers’ personal belongings were found in the cold room. In the hot rooms the domes were rebuilt and an independent metal floor with underfloor heating system was placed. Conservation and aesthetical restoration works was held on the inner wall decorations and also both the hypocaust and the heating-cooling installations were highlighted. Lastly, the retaining walls of the surrounding space were consolidated and restored.

Edited by:  Kanonidis, Aik. Tsanana

St. Galanis, Goumatianos, An.Kapandriti

Text-Graphic Design: St. Galanis, An. Kapandriti

Goumatianos, Mourtos, Drosou

Translation: Koukouli, Maladakis