Rome

• 

Baths of Diocletian

Note: There’s an extra charge of €2 during special exhibitions.

Now officially called the Museo Nazionale Romano – Terme di Diocleziano, Diocletian’s baths were the largest in Rome when they were built in AD 298-306, covering over a hectare (2.5 acres) and able to accommodate 3,000 people. (Round the corner in via Romita, the Aula Ottagona, with its tasteful sprinkling of large classical sculptures, was part of the structure.) A convent complex was built around the largest surviving chunk of the baths by Michelangelo in the 1560s. It now contains a collection of stone inscriptions which is sufficiently low-key to allow you to focus on the massive bath buildings themselves and on Michelangelo’s 16th-century restoration of the place, including its magnificent central cloister.

• Did you find this useful? Yes No
• 

      

---