After a record number of visitors to Rome in 2023, some 35 million, the city continues to become busier and busier and despite attempts by those who run the most visited sites such as the Colosseum and Vatican, finding tickets to enter these remains troublesome with resellers still being able to buy them in bulk and selling them on at extortionate prices.
But there is much else that Rome has to offer and increasingly, travellers are looking for off-the-beaten-path adventures with growing interest in food, unique access to lesser-known sites like catacombs and hidden gardens, underground sites.
One of the best preserved sites to visit is the Baths of Caracalla.
1. The Ancient Roman Baths
For the Romans, personal hygiene was not only valued but often treated as semi-sacred and ceremonial.
The act of bathing is important for health and wellness. Still, also an important ritual and act of cleansing that goes beyond physical cleanliness and most Roman cities had one or several, throughout the Empire.
– What are their origins?
Roman baths had humble beginnings but as the Empire grew over the centuries, and especially during the reign of Augustus who famously turned Rome from brick to marble, they became an important part of everyday Roman life. It was Augustus’s right-hand man, Agrippa, who first created a complex that became what we recognise today as typical public Roman baths.
From Greek, thermos meaning hot, and balnea meaning bathing complexes, we can also track down the word bath as deriving from the Angle Saxon word “bað,” which means “bath” or “a place where hot water emerges from the ground” which is precisely how these complexes worked.
Many Roman domus (houses) had private, small baths located on the ground floor.
Over the centuries and all over the empire, Emperors and aristocrats often built baths to gain favour for themselves with the plebeians and to create a lasting monument validating their generosity.
– What were they used for?
They were not only used for bathing, but important politics were discussed, sports and fitness in the palestre, and libraries. You would typically also find stalls that sold food and rooms for poetry reading.
They acted thus as a form of social club where you could meet for conversation, or just pass the time – there were ball games, wrestling, and certainly not places for quiet contemplation as they were very busy and noisy.
They also hosted magnificent art and statues, incredible architecture, and even from the ruins that we find today, one can imagine how impressive any visitor would have been, richly decorated with gold, marble, mosaic, and frescoes, available to citizens and the aristocrats alike.
Mosaics of athletes originally in the baths are now located in the Vatican Museums and the Farnese Bull – a gargantuan Greek sculpture unearthed at the gymnasium – is today located at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.
– Gymnasium, Caldarium, Frigidarium, Tepidarium
There were several rooms with hot, warm, and cold water providing the Romans the possibility of cooling off in summer, or to get warm during winter.
A typical day at the bath started at the Gymnasium, where the Romans warmed up by exercising.
Then, they moved to the hot room (caldarium), which had one or several tubs that generated a generous amount of steam.
After sweating a lot, the customers moved to the tepidarium, a lukewarm room, and finally to the frigidarium.
The frigidarium was a room that was not warmed up, therefore it felt “cold” compared to the hot rooms that the clients had just visited.
Usually, in the frigidarium there was a pool or a tub where the Romans could relax before leaving the baths.
Many bath complexes also had rooms for a dry sauna (laconica), which were usually round or octagonal. The laconica were designed to catch as much sun as possible and had big glass windows.
Some baths were constructed directly above hot springs but most often, aqueducts were built for the purpose of distributing water. That is the case of Caracalla’s Baths. –
– How did the Romans warm up the baths?
The system to warm up the baths was very complex.
Underneath and around the complex, there were several praefurnia (ovens) where large amounts of combustibles were burnt to produce hot air that warmed up the space below the hot rooms (hypocausta).
The praefurnia also warmed up the water for the hot tubs, which was kept in large boilers and delivered where necessary through long lead pipes.
2. The Baths of Caracalla
The construction of the Baths of Caracalla was initiated by Emperor Septimius Severus and completed by his son, Caracalla.
They are the second largest baths after Diocletian and one of the best preserved, being classified a UNESCO site in 1980.
They cover an area of approximately 30 acres and could hold 1,600 bathers at a time, or 8,000 might pass through in a day, while the largest complex, the Baths of Diocletian could easily see some 3,000 at a time.
The design of the building was one of opulence, from towering vaults to marble-covered walls and coloured mosaics.
Sunlight through the windows would reflect off the pools and fountains, glittering along highly polished marble and glass mosaics must have been quite a sight!
3. How to Visit
The Baths of Caracalla are just down the road from the Colosseum, and close to Circus Maximus. Given the very central location, we can easily reach them with summer opening times of 09:00 to 19:00.
In the fall and winter the baths close earlier: Check the official website for more detailed info!
As many sites run by the Italian state, they are closed on Mondays but it is still a lovely amble past with a sports stadium located just outside.
Inside, given the vast area the rooms and chambers span, we should plan a visit of 1-2 hours, and it’s wheelchair accessible.
For our architecture buffs, couple this with a trip to the Baths of Diocletian (closed on Mondays), a site exceptionally well preserved for an in-depth adventure with one of our expert guides!
– Pips Davidson
