Rome

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Baths of Caracalla

The high-vaulted ruins of the Terme di Caracalla are pleasantly peaceful today, but were anything but tranquil in their heyday, when up to 1,600 Romans could sweat it out in the baths and gyms. You can get some idea of the original splendour of the baths from the fragments of mosaic and statuary littering the grounds, although the more impressive finds are in the Vatican Museums.

The baths were built between AD 213 and 216. The two cavernous rooms down the sides were the gymnasia, where Romans engaged in such strenuous sports as toss-the-beanbag. There was also a large open-air natatio (pool). There were saunas and baths of varying temperatures, as well as a library, a garden, shops and stalls. Underneath it all was a network of tunnels, totalling 9.5km (six miles) in length, where slaves trod giant wheels that pumped clean water up to bathers. Caracalla’s baths were in use until 537 when the Visigoths sacked Rome and severed the city’s aqueducts.

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