30/12/2024
📍 Bath of King Fasiledes
Northwest of the castles, in the Qaha valley a little over halfway to Qwesqwam, is the small structure traditionally called the Bath of Fasiledes. Some have suggested that it was actually built by lyasu II, but Doresse considered that it dated back to the origins of Gonder, being built on the spot where legend says that Fasiledes, while hunting buffalo, came across a hermit who exhorted him to found a city here, in this place whose name began with G. This seems not improbable. Charles Jacques Poncet, residing in Gonder briefly in 1700 during Iyasu I's reign, mentions that during the Epiphany ceremony, when the people bathe in memory of Jesus' baptism, 'the Emperor goes with all his court to Kaa; which is a palace not far from Gonder, where there is a magnificent bason of water which serves for that pious ceremony'. Doubtless this was the Bath of Fasiledes, in the Qaha valley, existing well before the time of Iyasu II. An irregular-shaped walled compound with a two-storey gate-house, six pepper-pot guard towers, and a two-storey stable building, shaded with olive and other trees, shields the pavilion from view.
Inside the walled compound a large basin, c. 50 by 30 m., has been excavated to form a pool, walled round and with broad surrounding steps forming a terrace. Particularly attractive is the way in which the roots of some of the splendid trees in the inner compound have flowed over the walls. Small steps lead down into the pool from the surrounding terrace. From the front, an arched bridge leads over the water to a two-storey pavilion built on solid arched supports standing in the pool itself.
The façade consists of a central entrance door from the bridge, flanked by two windows, all arched with red stone and with white stone jambs. Above the doorway is a wooden balcony with a similar doorway, and another doorway to the left opens from the upper storey onto the roof parapet.
