Where Time Rests and the Body Awakens
Tucked into the winding streets of old Nicosia, just a stone’s throw from the Omerye Mosque and the Archbishop's Palace, stands a monument to timeless serenity: Hamam Omerye. Its domed ceilings and polished marble surfaces whisper of centuries past, yet its breath is very much alive. Warm, aromatic, and healing.
To step into this bathhouse is to cross a threshold that dates back to 1570, into a way of being that remembers stillness. Built during the early years of Ottoman rule and dedicated to the Caliph Omar, the hamam has long served as both sanctuary and ceremony. Today, it continues that legacy as a living embodiment of health and renewal.
The Ritual of Care
Hamam Omerye, an architectural jewel, is also a museum of sensation. Beneath its vaulted chambers, the simple act of bathing becomes a return to self. The steam rises slowly. It carries with it hints of cinnamon and crushed olive stone, of black Moroccan soap and coffee. As it envelops you, it awakens circulation, softens tension, and coaxes toxins from the body.
Here, health is a treasured process. It unfolds, layer by layer, through rituals both ancient and sensory. Begin with a traditional Kesse Borek exfoliation, where foam and touch cleanse the skin and the week’s rut. Follow it with a deep-tissue massage or a Ghassoul clay wrap, drawn from the same volcanic soil used for centuries in Moroccan beauty traditions. Add Hacamat (cupping therapy) or a custom botanical facial. To conclude your ritual of wellness, enter the hidden courtyard, where even silence feels curated, and enjoy warm herbal tea.
A Philosophy Etched in Stone
Since its restoration and Europa Nostra Award in 2005, Hamam Omerye has stood as a monument to preservation of walls and wisdom. Hippocrates once claimed that steam was the body's most potent healer, raising an “artificial fever” to stimulate the immune system. Modern science agrees: the heat accelerates metabolism, supports lymphatic flow, and balances the nervous system. The contrast of hot and cold restores a primal rhythm to the body, one often lost in modern life.
What once served as a place for spiritual preparation and social gathering now invites a more private form of pilgrimage, one of introspection, detoxification, and rest.
A Pause in the Pulse of the City
Every treatment at Hamam Omerye is handmade, both in practice and in essence. Scrubs are prepared fresh by the team using natural ingredients: mint, olive, coffee and cinnamon. Each massage is guided by intuition as much as training. Even the yoga sessions, offered under moonlight or inside the warm chamber, are tailored to each season. Whether you’re drawn to a 90-minute steam immersion, a Surat botanical facial, or a full-day ritual that spans exfoliation, massage, tea, and stillness, the experience is seamless.
Today, wellness can often feel packaged and impersonal. Hamam Omerye offers something rarer: presence, a deepening of reality. Here, health is a deeply rooted story. One that belongs to this city, and now, perhaps, to you.
Hamam Omerye
8 Tyllirias Street, 1016 Nicosia
T: +357 22460006