Description
The Baths of Caracalla are the great bath complex the emperor Caracalla had built on the Little Aventine in Rome, near the start of the Appian Way. Today they are imposing ruins, with walls as tall as palaces, and in summer they host opera performances among the ancient walls.
Built between AD 212 and 216, they were the most imposing baths of the Empire until the opening of Diocletian's in 306. The complex covers about 337 by 328 meters, with a central building of 114 by 220, surrounded by gardens and by an enclosure with shops, libraries and halls.
People did not come just to wash. There were changing rooms, gyms, libraries and gardens, and a set route: sauna, hot bath, warm bath and finally the natatio, a large open-air pool decorated with four enormous monolithic granite columns.
The heart was the caldarium, a circular hall 34 meters in diameter with a dome, facing south and lit by large windows to warm it with the sun. The frigidarium, 58 meters long and 24 wide, was a hall with three great cross vaults and cold-water pools.
Elegant mosaics are still preserved in the changing rooms. The two gyms, on either side, had a courtyard with a colonnaded portico in giallo antico. The water came from a branch of the Aqua Marcia and ended in a 64-cell cistern under the enclosure.
Beneath the ruins opens a network of underground passages: service corridors that let the baths run without the bathers seeing them. There, in 1938, the largest mithraeum known in Rome also came to light.
The baths operated for three centuries, until in 537, during the Gothic War, the Gothic king Vitiges cut the aqueducts. Then they became vineyards and a quarry of marble and columns: the cathedral of Pisa and Santa Maria in Trastevere contain pieces taken from here.
In the 1500s excavations under Paul III brought gigantic statues to light, such as the Farnese Bull, the Flora and the Hercules, now in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. A mosaic with twenty-eight athletes, found in 1824, is instead in the Vatican Museums.
The two great granite basins, which came from the frigidarium, became the fountains of Piazza Farnese. In 1960 the gymnastics events of the Olympics were held here, and since 1937 the Rome Opera's summer season has been staged here.
Don't miss
• The caldarium.
• The frigidarium.
• The mosaics of the changing rooms.
• The underground passages.
• The mithraeum.
Did you know?
• The last granite column of the natatio was given in 1563 to Cosimo I de' Medici: today it is the Column of Justice in Piazza Santa Trinita, in Florence.
• The basins of the fountains in Piazza Farnese were those of the frigidarium.
Built between AD 212 and 216, they were the most imposing baths of the Empire until the opening of Diocletian's in 306. The complex covers about 337 by 328 meters, with a central building of 114 by 220, surrounded by gardens and by an enclosure with shops, libraries and halls.
People did not come just to wash. There were changing rooms, gyms, libraries and gardens, and a set route: sauna, hot bath, warm bath and finally the natatio, a large open-air pool decorated with four enormous monolithic granite columns.
The heart was the caldarium, a circular hall 34 meters in diameter with a dome, facing south and lit by large windows to warm it with the sun. The frigidarium, 58 meters long and 24 wide, was a hall with three great cross vaults and cold-water pools.
Elegant mosaics are still preserved in the changing rooms. The two gyms, on either side, had a courtyard with a colonnaded portico in giallo antico. The water came from a branch of the Aqua Marcia and ended in a 64-cell cistern under the enclosure.
Beneath the ruins opens a network of underground passages: service corridors that let the baths run without the bathers seeing them. There, in 1938, the largest mithraeum known in Rome also came to light.
The baths operated for three centuries, until in 537, during the Gothic War, the Gothic king Vitiges cut the aqueducts. Then they became vineyards and a quarry of marble and columns: the cathedral of Pisa and Santa Maria in Trastevere contain pieces taken from here.
In the 1500s excavations under Paul III brought gigantic statues to light, such as the Farnese Bull, the Flora and the Hercules, now in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. A mosaic with twenty-eight athletes, found in 1824, is instead in the Vatican Museums.
The two great granite basins, which came from the frigidarium, became the fountains of Piazza Farnese. In 1960 the gymnastics events of the Olympics were held here, and since 1937 the Rome Opera's summer season has been staged here.
Don't miss
• The caldarium.
• The frigidarium.
• The mosaics of the changing rooms.
• The underground passages.
• The mithraeum.
Did you know?
• The last granite column of the natatio was given in 1563 to Cosimo I de' Medici: today it is the Column of Justice in Piazza Santa Trinita, in Florence.
• The basins of the fountains in Piazza Farnese were those of the frigidarium.