Shahi Hamam opens next month

LAHORE
EXCAVATION, conservation and restoration of Shahi Hamam, an ignored monument of Mughal era have entered into final stages and it may be opened to public and tourists as a museum in middle of the next month.
Shahi Hamam, located just inside the Delhi Gate and was originally built in 1634AD during the period of Mughal Emperor Shah Jehan, was buried under mud during British rule. The monument will be like a jewel in crown of Lahore and after complete excavation, restoration and conservation, it could become one of the most visited tourist attraction, claimed the WCLA officials. They said the authority was spending Rs4 million on the restoration of the monument and the amount was donated by Royal Norwegian Embassy.
Director General Walled City Lahore Authority (WCLA) Kamran Lashari while talking with The News said Shahi Hamam’s conservation will draw attention to the centuries old heritage that the Walled City offers to not only the residents of a fast expanding Lahore but to visitors from all corners of the world. ‘Conservation of Shahi Hamam is first of its kind in the Punjab province. We aim at developing this as a hot spot of tourists, and I am sure that it will catch the attention of many people around the world. This will be a wondrous site to be opened in the middle of May 2015 for the tourists and visitors’, the DG claimed.
Excavation of Shahi Hamam was started by WCLA in November 2013 in collaboration with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and international excavators started working on the project. WCLA officials said in 1955, Shahi Hamam, was recognised as a cultural asset and declared a protected monument by the Department of Archaeology. The entrance gateway on the west and the main hall in the northern part of the building are exquisitely decorated with frescoed panels depicting animals, birds, floral and geometric designs.
Rashid Makhdum (Consultant Architect AKTC) said the primary objective was to conserve Shahi Hamam to re-establish the historic Mughal period monument as an example of a traditional bathhouse and as a space of social interaction before the decline of Mughal rule in the sub-continent. ‘For this purpose, it was important that the nature of the original building, as well as the changes and transformations it had experienced over time, were explored and its basic functional qualities as a bathhouse revealed and displayed in an appropriate manner,’ he added.
A detailed report compiled by WCLA on the project revealed that having been covered for decades, if not centuries, with successive layers of whitewash, the frescoes were uncovered in 1991 and were found to be unaltered specimens of Mughal era wall paintings, although a little provincial in execution.
Sometime during its history, the building had gone into oblivion and was taken over by the Municipality to be used as a boys’ primary school, a girls’ vocational school, a dispensary and offices for some of its functionaries. Makeshift structures to provide residential accommodation for some of the staff were added on the roof. The northwestern rooms were rented out as shops by the Auqaf Department whilst additional shops were allowed to ‘grow’ on the lengths of the building’s northern, western and southern façades.
The Hamam is a single storey building covering an area of over 1,000 square metres. Built on the pattern of Turkish and Iranian bathing establishments of its time (which consisted of hot, warm and cool plunges and related facilities), Shahi Hamam is a collection of 21 inter-connected rooms offering all the facilities found in a public bath and an additional room set at an angle facing towards Ka’aba for offering prayers, the report said.
Project Engineer Shukurullah Baig said the physical interventions were based on a range of analytical examinations to establish an understanding of the Hamam’s architectural, formal and structural nature. Building materials were classified with respect to their physical and chemical properties, the key causes of deterioration were identified, and norms to be adopted during the conservation process were established.
The Hamam was used extensively by the public during Mughal times and was reserved for the exclusive use of women on a specific day of the week. The Shahi Hamam is the only monumental public bath from that period which still survives in the entire South Asian subcontinent. At present, the teams are exposing, conserving and displaying the original waterworks, drainage and heating networks of the monument. Restoration of the original entrance, internal layout and architectural features, including wall paintings, internal and external electrification and illumination is also near completion. The consolidation of surface decorations which comprise wall frescoes was treated as a special part of the conservation process. For this purpose, a Sri Lankan expert Prof Jagath Weerasinghe and team members, Ananda Colombage and Anura Krishatha, were consulted for their technical expertise. WCLA has also planned to establish facilities for an outdoor cafe, washrooms and souvenir shop while security measures and future maintenance of the premises is also underway.
Tanya Qureshi, a senior official of WCLA said on the completion of the project, the Hamam will be open to the public as a museum. A circuit has been designed to allow orderly movement inside the historic building, which starts at the main entrance on the western side. She said a briefing room equipped with audio-visual material on the Hamam would be constructed. The conserved fresco work can be easily viewed throughout the circuit. The artefact will be displayed externally on the eastern side of the Hamam, she concluded.