Chifte hammam Plovdiv

Overview

Chifte hammam is an Ottoman bath, turned into a center for contemporary art in Plovdiv. It is located near the intersection of the boulevards "Sixth of September" and "Tsar Boris III - Unifier".

It is called Chifte (couple) because it has a male and female compartment. Archaeological research shows that there was an early medieval church near the bath. A slab of an altar partition with the image of a lion and a lioness was found, now stored in the City Archaeological Museum.

The bath was built in 1582 during the reign of Murad III. During its construction, stones were used, processed in Roman times, but seized from the ruins of surrounding buildings and fortress walls. Roman ornaments can be seen on the one-meter walls of the building. On the inner walls are recessed inscriptions and structural drawings of the building itself, as well as medieval frescoes with floral and geometric ornaments. In the middle of the male part there was a round fountain. All rooms have domes in which openings for light are cut.

In May 1995, the building hosted the Week of Modern Art for the first time. Thus was born the idea to turn the building into a Center for Contemporary Art, called "Banya Starinna.