Someone who comes to Ordu looking for a "historic hammam" usually expects one of two things: a grand Ottoman bathhouse still standing, or at least a clear date. The reality is plainer. The city and its surroundings do have hammam buildings, but compared with other Black Sea cities little has been published about them, and for most there is no firm year. The good news is that the official records we have make it possible to describe that gap honestly. The sections below draw on the provincial Culture and Tourism Directorate pages, the building and inventory records of the Turkish Culture Portal (Türkiye Kültür Portalı), two peer-reviewed studies, the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam (TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi) and the Turkey Tourism Encyclopedia (Türkiye Turizm Ansiklopedisi). Current operating details such as hours, reviews and house rules are left out on purpose. They change, and they can only be learned from the venue you plan to visit.
Which records describe the hammam buildings of Ordu?
Short answer: There are three main kinds of record: the building pages of the provincial Culture and Tourism Directorate, the sightseeing and cultural inventory entries of the Culture Portal, and a few academic studies.
The first source is the "Historic Places" (Tarihi Mekanlar) list on the website of the Ordu Provincial Culture and Tourism Directorate. It names four hammams: the Çifte Hamam (double hammam) in Ünye, the Eskipazar Great Hammam and the Eskipazar Small Hammam in Altınordu, and the Ünye Saray Hammam. Not every building on the list has a detail page, or at least the pages we could open for this guide are limited to a few of them. So we give no history or architecture for the two Ünye hammams or for the Eskipazar Small Hammam. All we can say is that their names appear on the official list.
The second source is the Turkey Culture Portal. It publishes the same Directorate's travel-guide texts under "Places to Visit" (Gezilecek Yerler), and it also keeps detailed form records for buildings in its "Cultural Inventory" (Kültür Envanteri). The two can describe the same building at very different levels of detail. The Yalı Hammam shows this: the sightseeing page describes the building in a few sentences, while the inventory form lists fields such as construction date, builder, repairs and registration decision one by one, and leaves most of them blank or at zero.
The third source is academic literature. We have two studies: the restoration article on the Eskipazar Great Hammam by Mukaddes Ataman and Şilen Köseoğlu, published in the PEJOSS journal in 2026, and a 2018 article by Şerife Tali in Medeniyet Sanat Dergisi on the two hammams in Sefalık village, Aybastı.
One note on method matters here: "not recorded" does not mean "does not exist". A construction date field that reads zero in an inventory form means the building's date is unknown or was not entered. It does not mean the building is new. In this guide we use "not recorded" to keep those two situations apart. Passing on what each source says is a more reliable reading than guessing a hammam's age.
What period is the Eskipazar Great Hammam from, and what kind of building is it?
Short answer: The Ordu Provincial Culture and Tourism Directorate and the Culture Portal both describe the Eskipazar Great Hammam as a 16th-century work. It stands in Altınordu, south of the Eskipazar Mosque.
The Directorate page describes the building like this: it has three sections (cold, warm and hot), its outer surface is rubble stone and its interior is fine cut stone, and the roof uses domes and vaults. That short description gives the skeleton of a classical Ottoman hammam. You move from a changing and resting area through progressively warmer spaces, and the hottest section sits next to the heating system. Stone walls with domed or vaulted roofs are the typical way this kind of building holds heat and humidity.
One small detail stands out in the location information. The Directorate places the building in the Eskipazar neighbourhood (mahalle) of Altınordu, while the restoration article speaks of "Eskipazar village in the central district". The difference most likely comes from administrative naming, since the status of villages and neighbourhoods changes over time. We couldn't confirm this in the sources, so we only note that the difference exists.
Restoration: the 2010 projects and horasan mortar
The article by Ataman and Köseoğlu says that in 2010 survey drawings (measured drawings of the existing state), a restitution (a theoretical drawing of the building's original form) and restoration projects were prepared for the hammam. Its abstract says the changing room, warm room, hot room, latrine and furnace spaces and the roof system were studied by comparing them with hammams of the same period. The abstract also says the restoration adopted fidelity to the original materials and building technique as its basic principle, and that traditional materials such as horasan mortar were preferred, especially for the roof and plaster decisions. Horasan mortar is a traditional mortar made by mixing lime with ground fired clay or brick dust. The abstract doesn't give that definition; the explanation is our own addition.
The article's wider framing is worth noting too. According to the abstract, Ottoman hammams were used not only as places to wash but also as places where social relationships were formed. Some hammams lost their function through changes in urban settlements, fell out of use, and began to deteriorate because they stood unused for a long time. Documentation work began in the Republican period, but restoration takes a long time because there are so many buildings. The abstract doesn't give a construction date, so for the 16th-century information we rely on the Directorate and Culture Portal pages.
The sources differ on its present state
The Directorate page says the restoration carried out by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has been completed. The Culture Portal's sightseeing page (last updated 3 March 2022, as displayed) says the building has reached us in a ruined state, that restoration work is continuing, and that once it is finished the building will be a venue where old gravestones and stone objects used in the region are displayed. The two official pages don't agree. We can't tell which one is current, so we write nothing about whether the building is open to visitors today or what it is used for. The most reliable step is to ask the provincial Culture and Tourism Directorate for the current situation before you go.
Before you visit
Two practical notes if you want to see the building. Assume it may be closed or fenced off, and ask by phone or in writing first. And ask the responsible authority about things like permission to photograph. For directions, the sources give only "south of the Eskipazar Mosque" and "Altınordu". We give no travel time because we haven't measured one.
Where is the Yalı Hammam, and what kind of building do the records say it is?
Short answer: The Yalı Hammam is recorded in the city centre of Ordu, in the Düz neighbourhood on Süleyman Felek Street. Its cultural period is entered as "Ottoman"; the construction date, builder and patron are not recorded.
Two pages of the Culture Portal describe the building together. The sightseeing page summarises it like this: it has a rectangular plan, its corners are cut stone and the rest rubble stone, and the roof has a large vault in the middle with smaller vaults on the sides. At the front there is an adjoining second section, which has two storeys and a timber upper part. The inventory form fills in more: the building is plastered on the outside, the entrance is on a side façade, there is a chimney on that façade, and the hammam is in a "middle" position.
What the inventory form leaves empty is the most instructive part. The fields for construction date, builder, patron, inscription, endowment deed and repairs are all entered as "0". The fields for protection grade and registration decision are blank or zero as well. Against the water, electricity and heating fields the form says "none". The form was created and last updated on 24 September 2013, so this is a 2013 snapshot of the inventory and doesn't show today's situation. "Hammam" is written in both the original-use and proposed-use fields, which shows the building's function is defined as a hammam but says nothing about how it is used now.
We give no date for the Yalı Hammam, for two reasons. First, the record has none. Second, some of the elements in the architectural description (rubble stone combined with cut stone, a vaulted roof) were used in Ottoman hammams over a long period, so they can't fix a period on their own. Dating a building from its architecture takes expertise, and only a study that examines the building on site can do it. We couldn't find a published study of that kind for this building.
To avoid any confusion over names: the Yalı Hammam in this article is the hammam building defined on the Culture Portal by the Düz neighbourhood and Süleyman Felek Street.
What features does the Saray Hammam building have in Ordu?
Short answer: According to the Culture Portal, the Saray Hammam is a stone building in the Selimiye neighbourhood on Hükümet Street, made up of one large central dome and three small domes around it. The page gives neither a construction date nor a builder.
The portal text describes it like this: the main space has a square plan and a large dome, and there are three halvet cells with three small domes above them. A halvet is a small, enclosed washing cell attached to the hot section of a hammam. In the Turkey Tourism Encyclopedia's definition, the hot section is a structure containing the basins (kurna), the heated central platform (göbek taşı) and the halvets. This description gives neither a date nor repair information, so we name no period or person for the building.
One clarification is needed here: "Saray Hammam" is also the name of a business operating today. This article refers only to the Culture Portal's description of the building. It gives no information about the business (operating arrangements, services, reviews) and has no intention of doing so. For information about the business, the right source is the business's own announcements.
What can the two hammams in Sefalık, Aybastı, tell us?
Short answer: Şerife Tali's 2018 article is the first scholarly presentation of the Small and Large hammams in Sefalık village, in the Aybastı district. Because the buildings carry no inscription, it tries to date them by comparing them with similar examples.
The article's abstract says both hammams were laid out for a single function and reflect the features of the classical Turkish hammam, with warm room, hot room, water tank and furnace sections. It describes the materials like this: coarsely dressed stone and rubble stone on the outer walls, cut stone on the inner walls and arches, cut stone again on the door frames and wall corners, and brick at the transitions to the domes. The buildings are said to have a "plain composition", built mostly to meet a need, with function in the foreground. The last sentence of the abstract matters too: most of these works have lost their function and use.
This study is the clearest example of the method discussion in this guide. To work out the age of a building without an inscription, a researcher looks at three things: the plan scheme (which sections are arranged in which order), the building technique (stone, brick, transition elements) and decoration. Then the researcher compares those features with similar hammams whose dates are known. The result is not a "guess" but a reasoned approximation. We don't pass on the article's final dating from the abstract. The abstract gives neither a year nor a century, and we did not read the full text among the sources used for this guide.
The Sefalık case also makes a good contrast with the detailed project at Eskipazar. One is a large building that has been documented, designed for and restored. The other is a pair of rural, uninscribed buildings, presented to scholars for the first time and largely out of use. Together they show that Ordu's hammam heritage is not a single story.
How do you read a historic hammam building?
Short answer: A classical Turkish hammam runs from the changing section through the intermediate, warm and hot sections, and next to the hot section sits the furnace (külhan) that heats the water and the floor.
The "Hammam" entry in the Turkey Tourism Encyclopedia (Zafer Buzcu, 2019) sums up the architecture in five sections: the changing section, the intermediate section (aralık), the cold or warm section (soğukluk, ılıklık), the hot section (harare) and the heating section (külhan). In the hot section there are basins where each person washes individually, the central platform (göbek taşı) at the heart of the hammam, and the halvets. Because it is close to the furnace, it is the hottest section. The table below matches these sections with examples that appear in the Ordu records. The matching relies only on wording that appears explicitly in the sources; where a section is not mentioned in a source, the cell is left blank.
| Section | Function (general definition) | Example in the Ordu records |
|---|---|---|
| Changing room | Entrance, changing and reception section; usually unheated | Listed in the Eskipazar Great Hammam article |
| Warm room | Intermediate space so the body can adjust on the way into and out of the heat | Eskipazar (article), Sefalık (article) |
| Hot room | Where you wash; basins, central platform and halvets are here | Saray Hammam: three halvet cells (Culture Portal) |
| Furnace | The hearth that heats the water and the building; fuel store | Eskipazar (article), Sefalık (article) |
The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam entry "Hamam" stresses two distinguishing features of the Turkish hammam. The first is how people wash: in Turkish hammams, which have no pool apart from those at thermal springs, you wash at the basin by pouring water over yourself. The second is where you sweat: instead of a separate closed room, the raised platform in the middle of each hot section, the göbek taşı, was preferred. The entry also notes that the four-iwan plan, seen in building art since Central Asia, was applied in the hot sections. It adds that in Roman baths the hottest section was called the caldarium and the furnace the praefurnium. So the sequence from hot to warm is the Anatolian adaptation of a heating arrangement that goes back to antiquity.
Some of these words get mixed up in everyday speech. If you'd like the difference between göbek taşı, natır, kurna, halvet and külhan in short definitions, see our Turkish bath glossary.
How were women and men separated in historic hammams?
Short answer: There were two arrangements: in a double hammam (çifte hamam), two separate sections were built side by side for women and men; in a single hammam, women were given set hours.
The Turkey Tourism Encyclopedia makes this distinction clearly. Hammams are called single or double depending on whether separate sections were built for men and women. Single hammams were opened to men and set aside for women at certain hours. Double hammams consist of two adjoining hammams, one for men and one for women. According to the encyclopedia, the women's entrance usually opens onto a side street out of consideration for privacy, and the men's onto the main street. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam also writes that double hammams were rarely built in Arab countries, while the Turks built double hammams made up of two adjoining buildings for men and women. The abstract of the Eskipazar article likewise says that separate hammams for men and women were built in the Ottoman period.
For the buildings in Ordu, though, we have no plan document on this point. The Directorate's description of the Eskipazar Great Hammam mentions "cold, warm and hot" sections and doesn't mention a separate women's section. The portal descriptions of the Yalı and Saray hammams don't either. So we say plainly that we don't know whether these buildings were double or single. The Ünye building listed by name as a "Çifte Hamam" may point to a double plan from its name, but we couldn't reach that building's detail page, so that remains an inference and we write nothing more about it.
How today's working venues organise women and men is not the subject of this article either. It varies from venue to venue and should be learned from each venue's own announcements.
Was the hammam only a place to wash?
Short answer: No. The sources describe the hammam as a social meeting place as well.
The Turkey Tourism Encyclopedia says hammams became part of social life beyond cleanliness during the Ottoman period. It treats hammams where cultural events such as the bride-viewing visit, the bride-and-groom hammam (gelin-güvey hamamı) and the fortieth-day hammam (kırk hamamı) took place as symbols of a culture, passed down through generations, that lived on through the tellak (bath attendant), the natır and the külhanbeyi. The Eskipazar article and the Sefalık article stress the same point: the Sefalık abstract describes the hammams as institutions of a social character where social events such as washing, birth and marriage took place.
How was this function lost? The same encyclopedia entry explains that after the Republican period, as washing needs began to be met inside homes, new hammam building declined and the number of old hammams fell over time. It writes that as hammams earned less income, buildings disappeared either entirely or in part. According to the entry, in recent years some hammams continue their original function for tourism, and hammam facilities inside hotels also keep this culture alive.
The abstract of the Eskipazar article draws the same picture: hammams that lost their function through changes in urban settlements stood idle, and some buildings wore down. So a hammam building in Ordu being "out of use" is the local face of a general trend. It does not mean that a particular building has been neglected.
How do you plan a route to the historic hammams?
Short answer: Confirm that a building is open before you go, aim to look at it from outside if it is closed, and combine the route with the rest of your Ordu trip.
The buildings in the records are in different parts of the area: Eskipazar is in Altınordu, the Yalı and Saray hammams are in the centre, and Sefalık is in the Aybastı district. Distances and driving times aren't given in the sources and we haven't measured them, so we give no times. A practical order might be:
- Confirm first: For each building you want to visit, ask the provincial Culture and Tourism Directorate or the venue concerned for its current state. As we saw above, even two official pages can report different situations for Eskipazar.
- Read it from outside: Even a closed building lets you see its plan, material and roof from the street. Look at the walls where rubble stone and cut stone are used together, the vaulted and domed roofs, and where the chimney sits; that is the easiest way to read a building.
- Photography: On private property or in protected areas you may need permission to take photos. If you're not sure, ask.
- The rest of your trip: For the other stops in the city, see our guide to things to do in Ordu. If you're thinking of extending the route to Trabzon and Uzungöl, the Black Sea route article helps too. If you're curious about the neighbouring city's buildings, Trabzon's historic hammams was prepared with the same method.
Seeing a historic hammam and having a hammam experience are different things. The first is mostly about reading a building, the second about using a service. If you're thinking of the second, what to bring to a Turkish bath gives a short list for preparing, and you can find what the kese and foam sequence involves in our kese and foam massage article.
If you want a hammam in a hotel spa: Beatus Spa Radisson Blu Ordu
This article described historic buildings. For readers who want a hammam service, here is some separate information. The spa at Radisson Blu Hotel Ordu is run by Beatus Spa. It is in Altınordu, at the Boztepe Kümevleri location, inside the hotel, and it is not a historic building. The spa has a single hammam, which is shared by women and men together with the sauna and steam room. A woman guest's kese and foam appointment is planned at booking, and for that time the hammam is reserved for her. Kese and foam are done in the hammam, and a peştemal (a thin cotton wrap) is provided. The spa opens at 12:30 and massage sessions start at 13:00. You enter the spa through the hotel entrance (floor -1, by lift or stairs). You don't have to be staying at the hotel. For details see the page on a Turkish bath and massage in Ordu, and you can read how the hotel spa works in our Ordu spa hotel guide. To book, you can call from the card on this page or write on WhatsApp; there is no online booking engine. If you have any health condition, are sensitive to heat or are pregnant, talk to your doctor before the hammam.
