| The Old City of Akko (Acre) |
| Hamam al-Pasha |
| The Conservation of the Fountain |
| Orderer | Old Acre Development Company Ltd. |
| Duration | December 2008 - January 2009 |
| Implemented by: |
Yotam Carmel
Gavriel Solomon
John Peterson
Omri Ben Uziel
Oshra Perach
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Hamam al-Pasha is located in the northern part of Old Akko. The Serai and the large Al-Jazar Mosque are situated to its east. North of the hamam is Akko fortress and the Turkish bazaar is located to its southeast.
The hamam was built in 1781 by the ruler Ahmed Jazar al-Pasha, and it is the largest and most magnificent of the hamam structures that were built in the country in the Ottoman period. The importance of the hamam stems not only from its size, its beauty and the quality of its construction, but also from its central location, amidst the historic public buildings in the old city and the different cultural and social functions it fulfilled.
The structure functioned as a hamam until the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. From 1954 until the 1990’s it housed the municipal museum and since then it has been on display to the public as part of the tour of the fortress and its surroundings.
In 2003 a sound and light show called “The Last Bathhouse Attendant” was inaugurated in the hamam.
The aim of the current work was the conservation of the marble fountain in the hamam. The fountain is located in the center of the summer dressing room and it is built of decorated slabs of gray marble and slabs of variegated red marble.
Conservation of the Fountain’s Basin
Almost all of the problems inside the fountain are a result of an accumulation of travertine – on the walls of the fountain and on the fountainhead, its sides, and on the stone column in its center. The travertine has caused a decrease in water pressure and a blockage in the water pipe.
The conservation measures included:
• Dismantling the fountainhead and stone column.
• Cleaning and removing the layers of travertine using chisels and scalpels.
• Using a chemical solution to dissolve the remnants of the travertine.
• Cleaning the water channels and installing copper pipes 0.05 cm in diameter.
• Dismantling the stone column and replacing it with a new column built of kurkar drums.
• Replacing the existing pipe with a galvanized pipe and replacing the faucet.
• Assembling a new column made of kurkar drums and installing a new galvanized pipe inside it.
• Applying three layers of plaster. The outer layer is marmorino, a gray colored faux marble material.
• Sealing the bottom of the fountain with water repellent material (H224).
Conservation of the Fountain Casing
Variegated Red Marble Slabs. Flaking and deterioration of the stone are evident on these slabs. In the past this was treated using cement, on and around which salts have accumulated.
The conservation measures included:
• Removing the cement from the previous intervention by means of delicate chisels.
• Missing stonework was completed utilizing mortar the color of the original stone.
• The flaking was treated by means of injecting a thin material between the loose stone layers and reinforcing their edges with mortar the color of the original stone.
• Cracks were filled using thin mortar.
• The marble was treated with water repellant material to prevent the stone from absorbing water.
Marble Slabs Decorated in Shades of Gray. Salts crystallized and calcium accumulated on the surface of the slabs on the bottom part of the fountain. The intervention for this included wet cleaning and cleaning utilizing a chemical solution.
A fracture in the upper part of one of the slabs was completed with two layers, in a manner that is reversible. First debesh construction was built in order to create the necessary volume, and then mortar the color of gray marble was applied to match the appearance of the original stone.
To view the figures, click on the figure caption
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