The Arab baths of Santa María were baths for public use which constitute one of the few preserved examples of a very popular and abundant type of building in the Muslim Cordoba, which survived in the Christian culture of modern times. It was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest on 30 April 2001 and forms part of the historic centre of Cordoba, which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1994.

Its main entrance is on Calle Velázquez Bosco, numbers 8-10, although it also has an entrance on Calle Céspedes, number 11. It was built in the Caliphate period and rebuilt in the 14th century by Mudejar master builders. Today, the best preserved parts of the old baths are the three vaulted rooms corresponding to the frigidarium, the tepidarium and the caldarium, as well as the cistern.

The first mention of this building appears in 1262 in an adjoining deed of sale, while it is referred to as the 'bath of Santa Maria' for the first time a decade later. Therefore, it does not appear in any earlier Islamic sources, but all are subsequent to the conquest of the city by Ferdinand III of Castile, who ceded it to the House of Córdoba, specifically to Domingo Muñoz el Adalid. In 1380, the then lord of that house ceded ownership of the baths to the Cabildo of Córdoba in exchange for urgent restoration work. Two Mudéjar master builders were responsible for several alterations to the baths in 1329, who made a new boiler. The last recorded work on the baths dates from 1524, when the boiler was repaired using the remains of the boiler from the Arab baths of San Pedro. The operation of the baths was soon handed over by the Cabildo to private individuals; once they were no longer used as baths, the Cabildo leased it to the Cabildo as a tenement house. The oldest document of a lease as a dwelling dates from 1611.

Finally, in the 18th century, a reform was undertaken which involved the destruction of the barrel vault of the tepidarium to convert the room into a courtyard, as well as the raising of the original floor level, the removal of two columns and the opening of a door onto Calle Velázquez Bosco. In the mid-19th century, ownership passed into the hands of the Counts of Cañete de las Torres, until Count Enrique Cañas y Velasco died in 1969 and decided to bequeath half of his property to the Brothers of San Juan de Dios and the other half ended up in the hands of the Ministry of Finance. Rafael Bustos Juárez, chauffeur of the late Count since 1959, and his wife have remained in the rented property since then, buying the part from the religious of San Juan de Dios in 2000 and the part from the State two years later.

In May 2021 the Santa Maria baths passed into the hands of the group Doble de Cepa, who reopened the space to the public on 2 August of the same year, allowing tours during daytime hours, while at night they offer a gastronomic experience. It is open every day except Tuesdays.

The cold room or "frigidarium" is not open to the public, but has been kept hidden among the renovations carried out on the house. It corresponds to a room covered with a half-barrel vault that is preserved integrated into the current house and compartmentalised into several rooms.

The 'tepidarium' or temperate zone is now a square courtyard measuring 7.5 m on each side with galleries supported by eight columns, which support horseshoe arches, painted at least since 1920 according to photographs in the Municipal Archives in alternating yellow and red, in the style of the Mosque-Cathedral, and semi-circular vaults pierced by truncated pyramid-shaped skylights. The capitals of the columns are carriage capitals, except for one, which is Visigothic, the others are all from the Caliphate period with ataurique work, the so-called 'hornet's nest' capitals. The crests that crown these capitals, some of which are Muslim and others Visigothic, are well preserved. In the north and south galleries there is a compartment framed by two horseshoe arches that could be a divan or a pool. Next to it is a well and in the wall there is a cubicle that could correspond to another pool. The roof of this room was demolished in the 18th century and the floor level was raised half a metre to hide the remains of an Islamic pool. Today, the entrance is through this room, although the original entrance would have been through the cold room.

The 'caldarium' or hot area is a rectangular room measuring 10.3 m by 3.1 m with walls made of a combination of brick and ashlar stone and covered by a stone barrel vault. In the vault there are three orders of skylights, quadrangular in section, which are currently closed. On the west side of the vault there are two horseshoe arches at each end that originally framed the cubicles occupied by the pools, one of which is completely blocked, the other partially blocked, preserving remains of red stucco and, between the two, an opening framed by a double arch that opens onto a narrow vaulted gallery 6 m long and 1.8 m wide, which leads to a cistern or elliptical well 10 m deep. This cistern was used to supply water to the baths, possibly by means of an animal-powered waterwheel.