Through an English Lady's Eyes: The Sofia Hammam, 1717

November 3, 2026 · 5 dk okuma

Edirne, 1 April 1717. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, wife of the British ambassador in Istanbul, is recounting in her letters the journey from Belgrade to Edirne. On the way, she spends a day in Sofia, then one of the important cities of Ottoman Rumelia and today the capital of Bulgaria. In a letter to a friend, she sets that day down on paper.

At ten in the morning, so as not to be recognized, she takes a plain Turkish coach to one of the city's famous hot-spring baths: the women's hammam.

Beneath five domes

The bathhouse is made up of five stone domes. There are marble sofas, and cold water runs from the fountains. In the innermost room, the hot, sulphurous steam is so thick that it is impossible to stay dressed.

There are about two hundred women inside. They greet Lady Mary with "Uzelle, pek uzelle", that is, "Charming, very charming." The ladies sit on the first row of sofas, spread with carpets and cushions, and their maids on the second row just behind them.

Practical note: According to Lady Mary, women go to the hammam once a week and stay there for four or five hours. They pass from the hot room into the cool room without catching a chill. So the hammam is not just a bath but a weekly day of care: warm up, cleanse, cool down, rest.

The women's coffee house

Coffee and sherbet are passed around, and the conversation never stops. Lady Mary gives the place a most fitting name:

'Tis the women's coffee-house, where all the news of the town is told. (Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Letter XXVI, 1 April 1717. Abridged by Modalco.)

Lady Mary adds a playful note: the news is told here, and the gossip is invented here too. In those days, while men met in coffee houses, the women's meeting place was the hammam. Beyond bathing, the hammam was a place to rest, to beautify and to socialize.

Beauty in the hammam: braided hair

While the ladies recline on their cushions, their maids braid their hair in all kinds of styles. In another letter written the same day, Lady Mary describes how thick this hair was. In one lady's hair she counts 110 tresses braided with pearls and ribbons, and writes that all of them were natural.

More than a hundred years later, in Istanbul, Julia Pardoe also describes how hair was tied up in embroidered handkerchiefs after the bath. But she adds a warning: going to the hammam too often wears out the hair.

Skin and the hammam

Lady Mary writes that most of these women had shiningly white skin, and she compares their figures to those painted by Guido or Titian. In her other letter of the same day, she says that Turkish women have "the most beautiful complexion in the world". Pardoe, for her part, links this complexion to frequent visits to the hammam.

The corset anecdote

The ladies invite their guest to share the pleasures of the hammam. The most distinguished lady urges Lady Mary to undress and bathe. When Lady Mary opens her shirt and shows the stays beneath, the ladies are satisfied: they believe she has been locked into this "machine" by her husband. On one side, Europe's tight corset; on the other, the ease of the hammam.

Today's equivalent: a hammam day at home

We may not have four or five hours, but the order of the hammam works at home too. Set aside one evening a week for yourself and build your hammam day at home with these steps. The products accompany you through each step; they do not promise exaggerated results.

1. Warm up: Soften your skin with a warm shower. If you want to reduce chlorine and limescale in your shower water, the Shower Care Set comes with the Madeca shower filter.
2. Scrub (kese): Exfoliate gently once or twice a week. The Peeling Trio brings face, hand and foot care together in one pack.
3. Cool down: Today's answer to the hammam's cool room is toner. The Rice Extract Toner helps hydrate your skin.
4. Moisturize: For "velvet skin", lock moisture into your skin with Garnier Hyaluron Fresh & Plump.
5. Rest: Take your coffee and lean back with a 15-minute sheet mask: On Pearl or On Royal Jelly. We explain how to use the mask in the Weekly Mask Ritual article of the Modalco K-Beauty Guide.

Pardoe's warning for hair: Hot water and frequent washing tire the hair. On your hammam day at home, protect your hair from very hot water; after washing, wrap it in a soft towel, like the handkerchiefs Pardoe describes.

Which steps suit your skin? If your skin is sensitive, keep your kese day to once a week. Leave the rest to the 2-minute Modalco Skin Test: it will put together the routine that suits you.

In this series: Previous article → Skincare from the Palace to Today. Next article → the bridal bath Lady Mary witnessed in Istanbul: A Bridal Bath in Istanbul, 1718 (coming soon).

Sources

1. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Turkish Embassy Letters (1763). Letters XXVI and XXIX (Edirne, 1 April 1717).
2. Julia Pardoe, The City of the Sultan and Domestic Manners of the Turks in 1836 (1837), vol. 1, chapter II.

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