Of water and other pleasures

Fountain of life. Liquid object of desire that has triggered conflicts of all kinds throughout history.

His generous presence augurs wealth and fertility; its scarcity, ruin and death.

July. Public pool. The watery gurgling of a shower reveals that it has been left running and the water is painfully lost through the drain. From having it at our whim in the inconsequentiality of domestic habits, we have mistreated, squandered and undervalued it..

Do not fear, I have not brought Greta Thunberg's protest microphone to our lilies today, although seeing the dull, dry and arid yellow that covers our fields, it is worth remembering that we must take care of an increasingly scarce resource. Our lives are in it.

Actually, what I want is to take you on a relaxing getaway after this post-election week of heart attack, we deserve it. A getaway in which water will be our driving vehicle through an Andalusia of evocative, sensual and historical baths. Baths that keep within their walls the echoes of the conversations of those Andalusians who sought to escape the daily grind under the protection of a therapeutic hamman.

Our Andalusian ancestors were not the first to indulge in the pleasure of a relaxing bath. It is necessary to look for its precedent in the Roman civilization, a town that was distracted from hygiene until the knowledge of the benefits of the daily bath via Helena.

And of those hot springs, these baths.

That excellent custom of daily hygiene did not fall on deaf ears and the Muslims adopted it and adapted it to their own constructive, but also sociological characteristics.. Not only did these spaces become places where the body was removed, they also fostered moments for social relations, for confidentiality, gossip or simply to indulge in a moment of escape, in addition to the intrinsic spiritual function of the bath as an act of purification..

Andalusia was prolific in the construction of these daily paradises. Chronicles with high percentages of legend, speak of more than 300 baths in the Caliphate Córdoba. They must have been much less, although many more than have been preserved to this day.. More than twenty came to have Nasrid Granada.

Through the beautiful Carrera del Darro we arrive at El Bañuelo, the oldest and best preserved baths of those that are still preserved in the capital of Granada. Also known as Baños del Nogal or Baños de los Axares, they were located in the Axares neighborhood, with a reputation as a healthy place due to its fortunate orientation that allowed it to enjoy the sun and the cool breeze of the Darro. The image that visually defines these baths built in the 11th century by the Zirid king Badis (although other investigations push the date back to the 12th century) is the spectacular brick vault in which skylights open in the shape of eight-pointed stars.. This vault covers the bayt al-wastani room or room of warm water, the largest and most popular in the complex as it is the place preferred by users.

The starry oculi communicated the room with the outside, minimized steam condensation and let in just enough natural light to create an intimate and relaxed atmosphere.. After the Christian conquest in 1492, the splendor of the baths declined until they practically disappeared with the expulsion of the Moors.. Some would survive by being converted to other uses. In the case of El Bañuelo as a public laundry.

We do not change the century, the XI, but we do change the city to go to Jaén. There, in the basement of the Villardompardo Palace, we find what are possibly the largest Arab baths that we can find in Spain.. Its 450 square meters of extension are divided between the different rooms that make it up and that follow the base structure: lobby and rooms with cold, warm and hot water.. Squares and rectangles for the plants, semicircles for the vaults, octagonal stars as skylights. geometry of well-being.

After the conquest of the city by Fernando III in 1246, the baths continued with their hygienic, social and spiritual function until in the 14th and 15th centuries the Christians decided to use them as tanneries, workshops dedicated to tanning animal skins.. Its concealment as the foundation base of the Renaissance palace did not prevent its happy discovery in 1913 and its cataloging as a National Monument in 1931.. Walking through its rooms through the perfection of its brick arcades becomes a truly regenerative sensory experience..

Regeneration, therapy, peace, calm. This is how al-Hakam II must have felt in the baths of the Alcázar Califal de Córdoba, a mirror of the refinement achieved by the Umayyad court. Marbles, wall paintings, massage sessions, shaving and hair styling. After this, any gift voucher will seem to them peccata minuta.

The royal baths were for the exclusive use of the monarch and his family, as well as serving as a meeting place with the political authorities.. A council of ministers with towels around their waists.

The baths of the Almohad Alcazar of Jerez de la Frontera must have had the same regal character. With spectacular roofs, the Jerez baths maintained their original function until the 15th century, when their use was prohibited and they were converted into a church..

Almohades are also the bathrooms discovered in the remodeling works of the Bar Giralda in 2021. Eight hundred years hidden from the eyes of the Sevillians who today contemplate in amazement the extraordinary original pictorial decoration that covers its ceilings and makes them an exceptional find..

The baths of the Alcazaba de Almería, those of Baza, those of Ronda, Andalusia is dotted with these hedonistic temples.

The regenerating steam, the healing light, the fragrances of a sensual and stimulating Mediterranean. Everything at the service of quiet chat, intimate confidence, informal negotiation.

And the water.

Sacred liquid crystal.