One of the most impressive places to visit in the Old City is the Souq al-Qattanin or Cotton Merchants Market that runs eastwards from El Wad Street in the Muslim Quarter to a magnificent entrance onto the Temple Mount. This covered street of shops was built by the Mameluk emir Tankiz in the early 14th century. On the south side of the market Tankiz built a khan or traveller’s inn with two bathhouses; the Hammam al-Ein or Bathhouse of the Spring and the Hammam al-Shefa, the Health Bathhouse. The bathhouses functioned for 600 years. Now Khan Tankiz is home to the Centre for Jerusalem Studies of Al Quds University.
A hammam is a cross between a Roman bathhouse and a sauna. In the Roman Empire a bathhouse was much more than a place to bathe. It was a community centre, a place to socialise and to conduct commercial and political negotiations. In the Arab world a hammam was often located near to a mosque and served the needs of ritual washing before prayer as well as social and hygienic purposes. The hammam became known to Europeans through the spread of the Ottoman Empire. That’s how they came to call it the “Turkish bath”.
The Hammam al-Shefa got its name “the Health bathhouse” because of the excellent quality of the water that was pumped up to it from a very deep well. As a result people with all sorts of aches and pains used to come here. It was said that the well was connected by an underground channel to the Gihon Spring by the side of Ir David. Locals said that not only did the waters from both sources have the same taste, just a little salty, but that they would rise and fall at the same time.
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Walk along Bezalel Street and, on a building at the corner of Nissim Behar Street in the Nahalat Zion neighbourhood, you will see a rusting and faded sign directing you to “the Health Bathhouse”. Turn the corner and you will see a newer sign with the name “Pargod Theatre”. The bathhouse is long gone but the building and one of the heroes of its story remain. Stand outside for long enough and Arye Mark, founder of the Pargod Theatre, will bounce down the stairs, introduce himself and tell you the story of his life and of the building in which he still lives.
Pargod Theater 2006 Photo by Esther Inbar
The Health Bathhouse was built in the 1930’s by Yohanan Ezra, a plumbing contractor whose image is engraved in the memory of all those who grew up in the neighbourhood at that time. He would ride around the area on a white donkey with bells on its saddle. This donkey instinctively knew where Ezra had to go and would take him on his route without any instruction – to the grocery store, to the pickle shop, wherever he needed. It was said that it would even take him up the stairs to his living room on the second floor of the bathhouse.
In 1901, when Nahalat Zion was first established at the edge of built-up Jerusalem a filthy cesspool sat at this corner. There was no piped water and no proper sewage system in the city. It was only in 1925 under British rule that the first piped water arrived. So when Ezra built his bathhouse it offered many people in the nearby neighbourhoods their only possibility of a proper wash - apart from the mikvaot. Here, in separate suites for men and women, people could relax after a hard day’s work and wash or bathe in hot water.
When the State of Israel was established most houses were provided with running water. The bathhouse was no longer needed. The building was abandoned and remained empty for 25 years until 1973. Then Arye Mark arrived, cleaned out the cistern in the basement and turned it into a small auditorium. The Pargod Theatre, “the theatre behind the screen”, was always outside the establishment. It staged theatrical and musical performances until it closed its doors in 2005 while the building’s owners went to court to apply for permission to redevelop the site.
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