Spain Guide
Catalunya
Banys Àrabs
Opening time: Mon– Sat 10am–7pm, July & Aug until 8pm, Oct– March until 2pm, Sun & public hols 10am–2pm
Price: €1.80
Very near the cathedral, reached by going through the Portal de Sobreportas and then turning right, stand the Banys Arabs, probably designed by Moorish craftsmen around 1194 and rebuilt a century later. Closed down in the fifteenth century, supposedly to protect public morals, the building was appropriated by a Capuchin convent in 1617. After years of dereliction, the baths were restored by local architects Rafael Masó and Emili Blanc in 1929, and subsequently opened to the public as a museum.
The finest of their type in Spain outside of Granada, they have the usual underfloor heating system in the caldarium (steam room) and the Roman-derived layout of four principal rooms. The apodyterium (changing room) is the most interesting; there are niches for clothes and a stone bench for relaxation after bathing, while the room is unusually lit by a central vaulted skylight supported by an octagon of columns.