TEHRAN – Hammam-e Nobar, a public bathhouse in Tabriz, East Azarbaijan province, is scheduled to open its doors to visitors by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (which ends in March 2023), the provincial tourism chief has said.

Owned by Tabriz Municipality, the bathhouse will open its doors to the public after being fully restored, Ahmad Hamzehzadeh explained on Wednesday.

The historical structure is one of the significant architectural works left over from the Qajar era (1789-1925) in Tabriz, therefor its preservation and protection is on agenda, the official added.

Bathhouses or ‘hammams’ in Iran were not only places for bathing and cleaning up. They had a social concept for people who gathered at these places weekly.

It was a place where people talked with each other about their daily life and shared humor and news. There are still bathhouses in Iranian cities, but they do not have their social function anymore since most people have bathrooms in their homes due to the modern lifestyle.

Some cities had separate bathhouses for men and women. They were usually built next to each other. However, there were some bathhouses, which were used by men and women at different times of the day.

Persian literature is full of proverbs, narrations, and folk stories about bathhouses, which indicate the importance of the place in the past.

ABU/AM