Arab Baths, Chinchilla de Montearagón

The Arab Baths of Chinchilla de Montearagón are a medieval Islamic hammam in the historic town of Chinchilla, Albacete Province in Castile-La Mancha, Spain, forming part of a broader Islamic building complex dedicated to hygienic bathing and declared a national monument on 12 December 2002. Chinchilla de Montearagón, perched dramatically on a hilltop and dominated by a fifteenth-century castle, was an important military and administrative center of the Kingdom of Murcia during the late medieval period, and its Arab baths attest to the Islamic heritage of this Castilian-Manchegan town. The hammam represents the spread of Islamic bathing culture deep into the interior of the Iberian Peninsula during the centuries of Moorish rule.