Radon bath

About the bath

The Radon Bath in the Chepino quarter is today's name for two fairly well-preserved Ottoman baths (a men's and a women's), dating from the middle of the 18th century. According to the website of Velingrad Municipality: “The building is not very old, but its foundations and the havuz (pool) remain from an older time. According to the inscription above the door, the Banya bath was renewed in 1163 (1750 AD) by one Mehmed bin Hasan, who spent 700 grosh on it, quite a large sum for that time. Konstantin Jireček, who visited the men's bath in 1888, describes it as ‘a hexagonal building with a dome, containing a rectangular pool built of large dressed stones’.” Today the baths take their name from the noble gas radon, which is part of the composition of the water. The bath was extended and modernised in 1923–1926 by the reserve officer Ivan Goturanov. In 1975 it was renovated again: cold-water taps were fitted at every basin, 6 more basins and a small shower section were added. Each of the two buildings has changing rooms with couches, showers, stone basins (kurni) and a mineral water pool. In the men's bath the pool remains from the old Turkish bath. The women's bath is more modern, but its bathing room has preserved stylised ornaments from the Ottoman masonry. Details on the façade show the elegant architectural style of the 1920s. The women's bath has four rooms with bathtubs for individual and family use. Near the mineral baths there are open-air plunge pools with mineral water (mira), which are freely accessible and maintained by the local community.

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