While the locations of municipal brothels are known in five cities from medieval Hungary, little has been discussed about other sites of prostitution. The first part of this paper aims to better understand what kind of women interacted with bathhouses in the Kingdom of Hungary and determine if there is any link between the city brothels. The second aspect explored will be using etymological history to understand the geographic links between brothels, bathhouses, and streets associated with sex work in medieval Hungarian cities.
The historical names will be indicated in footnotes. This one is known from and mentioned as lupanar. I, Christopher Mielke Romania. Jacques Rossiaud identified four different spaces where sex work took place in the Middle Ages: city-run brothels, bathhouses, smaller private establishments and finally freelance prostitutes who used whatever space was handy.
While other urban spaces like taverns operated as sites where not only casual prostitutes met customers, but also where they could be regulars, they will not be explored here. In medieval cities, bathhouses were often treated in the same breath as brothels, particularly by urban authorities. I, , vol. III, In spite of this and isolated incidents like Contz Steinmetz being fined by Dresden in for bathing with a whore, or a woman from Quedlinburg being punished for bathing with men in , there is little evidence for bathhouses in German cities functioning as brothels.
In his study of Lucca, the town had a governing body in charge of enforcing regulations related to waste disposal, maintenance of public areas, and supervising water drainage including sewage. The very public danger of sexuality threatened the social order of medieval towns, which, in turn, led to the publicly sponsored brothel as being a place where the women could be kept and 9 Karras, Common Women, Women and Bathhouses in medieval Hungary Women as founders and builders of bathhouses In general, very little is known about who founded public baths and when in medieval Hungary.
The earliest known bath from the medieval period is a foundation by Anna Agnes of Antioch d. Bathhouses from the Crusader period are known from Acre, Jaffa, Jerusalem, and Tyre, while one from the thirteenth century was excavated in 'Atlit. While baths and bathing were an important part of the city in the Late Antique period, by the twelfth century the city had significantly changed. Rather than the old Great Palace of Constantinople, the Byzantine imperial family inhabited the Blachernae Palace; bathing was an important part of the Friday imperial ceremony here, which ended at the nearby Church of the Theotokos.
