The terms of Caracalla were erected on a large scale. This is evident in the scale of the ruins. It is interesting to simply walk around the complex and try to imagine how everything looked here before. I recommend visiting them in the summer, during the opera festival.
Terme di Caracalla, photo by MJAB
Bathrooms: bathhouse, club, stadium, beauty salon, concert hall
I do not know whether it is permissible to apply the epithet "greats" to public baths. If yes, then the Terme of Caracalla, the official name is the terms of Antoninian, I would like to call it that way: great, colossal, grandiose. After all, the Roman baths at one time were not just a place where they came to wash. They served as a public club, a cultural center, even a sports complex. Playgrounds, a conference room, an extensive library - all this was in the ancient Roman baths.
Huge ruins lie near the Appian Way amid pines and bright greenery. Entering the territory of the term Caracalla, you immediately feel very small. Compared to these magnificent ruins, even a man of gigantic height would have felt vulnerable and insignificant. Unfortunately, little has been preserved from its former splendor.
Main Hall, Wendy photo
However, today, having a good imagination, looking at the remains of beautiful mosaic floors and carefully executed Roman masonry, one can imagine how the terms looked during the heyday of the empire. Giovanni Battista Piranesi captured the reconstruction of ancient buildings on his engravings, "Views of Rome." Many researchers created their own versions of the architectural reconstruction of the Roman complex.
History of term
The construction of the term Caracalla began in 212 BC. e. by decree of the emperor Septimius Bassian Caracalla and ended in 217. By the 5th century, the huge complex had been reconstructed and expanded more than once. The 11-hectare baths were called the "wonder of the world." The main building, where the baths were placed, stood in the center of a vast park and was surrounded by all kinds of buildings.
Bath plan
The ruins of the term, photo by Olivier Monbaillu
A wealthy empire could afford valuable materials. The high walls were lined with polished marble; large windows framed in bronze bindings let light through the plates of translucent stone. Water passing through the aqueduct accumulated in 64 tanks. A huge hearth under the floor heated the water. Hot steam rose through the canals passing through the walls.
Through the gates in the term fence, visitors approached the facade of the bathhouse, on which there were three portals. Tourists today come from the opposite side.
Behind the entrance there were locker rooms, behind them - a sports exercise room (palestra). After an active warm-up, visitors went to the sauna (judiciary), then calidaria (a large room, in the center of which was a pool of warm water). Around the calidaria were small rooms in which one could wash one by one. Further sequentially located: terpidarium (room with hot dry air about 45 °), frigidarium (a room without a roof, enclosed by walls where visitors cooled down after hot procedures) and, finally, a large swimming pool - natation.
Entrance to the baths, photo Olivier Monbaillu
The name of the architect who planned the complex is unknown to us. However, it is clear that this was a real genius of architecture. The baths are magnificent even now - in ruins. All rooms are not just conveniently located - they are built in order, in full accordance with the recommendations of Roman doctors.
Terme Caracalla today
In 537, the barbarians blocked the Roman aqueducts, and the baths of Caracalla began to decline. They were discovered again in the 16th century. Serious archaeological work began in the 19th century. In the twentieth century, a mitrium was found, a place where the ancient deity Miter was worshiped.
The high ruins of the main bath rooms reach 20 m. The calidaria diameter is about 35 m. (Its huge semicircular windows provided bathers with long-term natural light). The massive oval dome rose above the calidarium on massive pillars (there were eight pillars at the time, but only four were preserved).
The area of the frigidarium hall was 1400 m². The frigidarium was blocked by a vault, but the natation pool remained open (this pool was hidden for a long time in the ground and was well preserved until the excavation began).
Mosaic floor, photo by Frode Nygaard
Preserved and multi-colored floor mosaics. Mosaic and relief fragments can be seen today in different places of the term. But the statues that adorned the premises, and granite baths from the frigidarium were transferred to Roman museums.
Now it is difficult to determine where the premises were located, only if on the explanatory tablets. Stone steps were erased, mosaic floors alternate with green lawns, wild birds nest on high walls, stray cats roam between the ruins. Nature quickly absorbs what has been created by people for centuries.
Use term
The terms of Caracalla are protected by the state. In the last century, they began to be used as a concert and theater venue - the ruins gave excellent acoustics. In 1937, Donizetti's opera was first performed in terms, and in July 1990 a concert of three legendary tenors Domingo, Pavarotti and Carreras took place.
The ruins of a once glorious era now turned into the stage of the Roman Opera House (Teatro dell'Opera di Roma). The huge area of the former tepidarium was converted into an auditorium for 20,000 spectators and a 22-meter stage. The summer theater season in terms was interrupted only during World War II and in the 90s. In 2001, after 10 years of restoration, the complex began to serve art again.
Mosaic term Caracalla, photo by Peter
Opening hours
The Baths of Caracalla are open daily from 9:00.
On Monday, the complex closes at 14:00.
On the remaining days of the week, opening hours depend on the season:
January 2 - February 15 to 16:30;
February 16 - March 15 to 17:00;
March 16 - August 31 to 19:15
September 1 - September 30 until 19:00;
October 1 - the last Saturday of October until 18:30;
last Sunday of October - December 31 to 16:30.
The terms are closed on January 1, December 25.
Tickets
Full - € 8;
preferential - € 4.
How to get there
You can get to Term Caracalla:
- metro line B to the stop Circo Massimo;
- by bus: 160 to the Baccelli stop; 118, 628 to Terme Caracalla / valle Camene; 671, 714, 717, 792 to Terme Caracalla.
