Some bathhouse owners tried to prevent sex among patrons while others, mindful of profits or prepared to risk prosecution, overlooked discreet homosexual activity. Early records 1492 Florence In Florence, Italy, in 1492 there was a purge against the 'vice of sodomy'. The places used for homosexual acts were taverns, baths, and casini (sheds or houses used for illicit sex and gambling). The Eight of Watch (the city's leading criminal court) issued several decrees associated with sodomy, and on April 11, 1492, it warned the managers of bathhouses to keep out 'suspect boys' on penalty of a fine.
In the short period from April 1492 to February 1494, it convicted 44 men for homosexual relations not involving violence or aggravating circumstances. 1492 Granada After the conquest of the Muslim city Granada in 1492, Queen Isabel the Catholic closed the public baths to suppress the homosexual activity they facilitated. 1876 Paris In France the first recorded police raid on a Parisian bathhouse was in 1876 in the Bains de Gymnase on the Rue du Faubourg-Poissonnière. Six men aged 14 to 22 were prosecuted for an 'offence against public decency' and the manager and two employees for 'facilitating pederasty'.
