Banys de l'Almirall, Valencia

Banys de l'Almirall is a historic bathhouse, built in the Mudéjar tradition and situated beside the Palace of the Admirals of Aragon. Its story is especially striking: Pere de Vilarasa built it between 1313 and 1320, during Christian rule, using a bathing design associated with Islamic architecture. Look at the star-shaped skylights set into the vaulted rooms.

The complex is arranged as cold, warm, and hot chambers, with the warm chamber featuring an octagonal dome and three arches. Heat once travelled beneath the floor and through the walls, turning the hot chamber into a steam room. Public bathing continued here for more than six centuries, until the baths closed in 1959.

The building later underwent restoration and reopened to visitors in 2005. It is now protected as a cultural asset, preserving an unusual survivor of Valencia's medieval bathing culture.