Ruins of the Baths

Here, we’ll continue the visit by turning right, but if you like, you can make a short detour of just a few metres along Jonuz Cuçi Street in front of you to see the remains of the Ish-hammam of Gjirokastër. This was once a Turkish bath built in the seventeenth century, originally part of a mosque complex. In the Ottoman period, hammams were not only places for washing, but also important social spaces and sites of ritual purification before prayer. Built of stone using traditional techniques, this one was topped with several domes, two of which are still visible today and give a good sense of the sober elegance of local Ottoman architecture. In 1967, during the atheist campaign of Enver Hoxha’s communist regime, the mosque was destroyed, while the hammam partially survived, along with a fragment of the minaret and the nearby Seven Fountains. These fountains, still fed by running water, were used for ritual ablutions, and if you listen carefully, you can still hear the sound of water flowing beneath street level. Closed to the public and under restoration for several years, the Ish-hammam can now only be seen from the outside.