Do monuments have lives that justify writing down their life stories? And if they do, are their lives punctuated by events and structured by relationships, similar to human lives? Do they have an identity of their own, and does this identity change over time? This book has grown out of the desire to understand a particular monument, Çemberlitas¸ Hamamı in Istanbul, in its historical as well as its contemporary aspects, and the rich material collected and examined in this process – the architecture itself, archival documents, printed media, interviews and observations – suggests a resounding yes as answer to these questions. The hamam was never of the scale, magnificence or the legitimising power of either the Topkapı Palace or Süleyman the Magnificent's mosque complex, both of which are located within walking distance from the bathhouse. Yet it is exactly this relative modesty that permits the architectural historian to look beyond the building itself, into its complex relations with other monuments and humans, and to extend the timeframe of this study to the hamam's entire life span of more than four hundred years.

Located on the corner of the Divan Yolu – the main thoroughfare where now a stream of tourists wanders from the Hagia Sophia past travel agencies, souvenir shops and kebab restaurants towards the Covered Bazaar – and the small plaza around Constantine's Column, Çemberlitas¸ Hamamı today invites foreign visitors in search of the exotic and erotic as much as it invites Turkish visitors in search of a relaxing bath or an excursion into their own historical past (Figures I.1, I.2). As Istanbul has become a major tourist destination drawing visitors from around the world, the domes of Çemberlitas¸ Hamamı's dressing and bathing rooms resound with chatter in Turkish, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Hebrew, Dutch and many other languages. For many tourists, the hamam visit is an activity fitted in between a visit to the whirling dervishes and the bazaar, into a hectic schedule meant to convey the splendour of a city whose name evokes the mysteries and pleasures of the Orient.

Çemberlitas¸ Hamamı's present role as a tourist attraction was certainly beyond the imagination of the monument's patron and architect.