Thebañuelo

The Bañuelo

By: Noelia Folgoso
and
Herminia Álvarez
This baths are located in Carrera del Darro, GRANADA.

It was built by the Zirid emir Badis (1038-1056).Construction of TheBanuelo seems to date from the Eleventh Century. The baths are undoubtedly the oldest and best-preserved Arab baths in Spain, and the oldest work of Muslim Granada. You can access The Banuelothrough a small house, renovated in the Christian era. Its rooms are rectangular and it has various chambers with brick arches, with a star-like window in the roof for allowing in light.The structure...
The walls are of mortar and the vults and arches of brick. It has rectangular and square rooms, plus the service area.The rectangular rooms have side rooms separated byarches and covered by barrel vaults with star-shaped and octagonal skylights.

At the Bañuelo baths we can see:
-The enlongated changing room : comes next through a segmental arch and iscovered with a barrel vault pierced by star-shaped and octagonal skylights.
-The cold room: has a rectangular shape with sides rooms deparated by horseshoe arches.
-The warm room:is thelargest and is square-shaped, surrounded on three sides by galleries of horseshoe arches resting on baseless columns. The galleries are covered by barrel vaults and the central part by a largecloister vault, all with octogonal skylights.
-The hot room: is also elongated with arches at either end and two plunge baths against the wall, between which is located the entrance to theservice area containig the best preserved boiler of all the baths studied here and the furnace.
The pillars supporting the floor of the hor room are cleary visible.We can also see the chimneysto take smoke form the furnace.
The floor is brick, except for the warm room.
IMAGES OF THE BAÑUELO

The cold room

Warm room

Arches

Star-shaped and octogonal skylights.

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