Sulfur Baths

source: liveinternet.ru

Due to the abundance of hot sulphur springs, Tbilisi was famous for its sulphur baths from the earliest times. According to the legend, the Georgian King, Vakhtang Gorgasali was once hunting a deer in the valley. Unexpectedly the deer that the king managed to wound pressed itself to the spouting from the underground hot sulphur spring and was instantly healed and disappeared in the thicket. After what the king ordered the foundation of the city on this site. This city got consequently the name of Tbilisi. There were a few large bathhouses in Tbilisi, and the most famous were named after their owners: the Sumbatovskie, the Bebutovskie, the Zubalovskie, the Orbelianovskie, etc. All of these bathhouses have been constructed between the 17^th and 19^th centuries. The oldest one is the Iraklievskaya Bathhouse, for the possession of which in the 16th century disputed members of the royal family and the Georgian princes. Bathhouses were built in the style of classical oriental architecture. These are low, squat buildings, surmounted by the semi-circular domes, in the center of which the large openings glass windows allowed the light come in and illuminate the interiors, since baths were located below the ground level. Formerly, people did not only bathe here, but also communicated, staying till the daybreak, and the city’s matchmakers in special days arranged marriages. Bathhouse was the place to arrange dinner-parties and to conclude trade deals too.