El Bañuelo

From the street you would never guess it, but behind this plain facade hides an Andalusi public bathhouse, the hammam of the Axares quarter, which Arabic sources call the Walnut Tree Bath. It is known as the Bañuelo, the ‘little bath’, because it is far smaller than the royal baths of the Alhambra.

1A steam ritual

The architect Leopoldo Torres Balbás dated it to the Zirid period, the reign of Badis (1038-1073) or of his grandson Abd Allah; some recent studies suggest the twelfth century. It worked like the Roman baths, but with steam: after the changing room, bathers moved into the cold room, then the warm room and finally the hot room, next to the boiler. They did not immerse themselves: they poured water over their bodies and were given massages.

The warm room is the largest, with horseshoe arches on marble columns. Its capitals are reused, Roman, Visigothic and Caliphal, taken from older buildings. The vaults are pierced with skylights shaped like eight-pointed stars, which let the light in and the steam out.

2From bathhouse to laundry

After 1492 the bath stayed open as long as there was a Morisco population, but the bans on Islamic customs brought its use to an end. It became a public laundry and then a home, with an extra floor added on top. It was protected in 1918, and Torres Balbás restored it in 1927 and 1928.

Opposite stood the Cadí bridge, which linked the Albaicín with the Alhambra; all that remains is the springing of an arch beside the river.

3What to look for

• The facade of brick and plaster, which disguises it as just another house.
• The remains of the Cadí bridge, on the other side of the Darro.
• The walls of the Alhambra, rising above the woods.