Beyseri Baths

The Beyseri Baths are a historic Ottoman hammam in Antakya District of Hatay Province in southernmost Turkey, in the city built on the site of ancient Antioch on the Orontes — one of the greatest cities of the Hellenistic and Roman world, the third-largest city of the Roman Empire after Rome and Alexandria, and the birthplace of Christianity as a named religion. Antakya's extraordinary historical depth — encompassing Seleucid royal capital, Roman metropolis, Byzantine patriarchal see, Crusader city, and Ottoman provincial capital — is reflected in its rich urban heritage, and the hammam served a community in a city where Greek, Arab, Armenian, Turkish, and French cultures have each left their architectural and cultural mark. The Beyseri Baths formed part of Antakya's Ottoman civic infrastructure in a city whose multicultural and multi-religious character has defined it for over two millennia.