The ruling Ottoman elite added the Turkish Hospital in 1895 and a hammam (Turkish bath house) and fortress in the early twentieth century.
The ornate spa at the Victoria Palace Hotel in Sunny Beach has a Turkish-style hammam and a Cleopatra-style milk-and-honey bathtub, as well as a range of more commonplace treatments.
Went for a 6am hammam, the Moroccan Turkish bath, taken twice daily by locals and incorporating sauna, wash and massage in one.
One of its real finds, however, is a side-street jewel in the heart of the old town called the Hotel Byron, all bleached peach walls and sky-blue shutters built over the dome of a Turkish hammam.
Brue's search for the perfect bath takes her from Turkey, land of the hammam, to Greece, Russia, Finland and even Japan.
Origin
From Turkish or Arabic ḥammām 'bath', from ḥamma 'to heat'.