SIGNA ROMANORVM - Notes about bath houses and nympheums

Bath and Nympheums

Bath houses

The Roman bath houses were public buildings with plants to provide hygenic facilities; they were also what nowadays are the modern bath houses and were the main places where the Romans used to get together. There was two kind of bath houses: one for poorer people (most of the citizens) and one for the rich, which were like monuments and as little cities inside the city.

First baths born in places where hot springs or curative waters already were. After, especially during the imperial age, bath houses were built also inside the cities, thank to the development of water heating tecniques.

Inside the bath the common itinerary was a route through the rooms with a succession of cold water bathtub (frigidarium), after a warm one (tepidarium) then a hot one (calidarium or caldarium). In the sourroundings of these main rooms you found some others for other purposes: in the biggest baths (as Caracalla's) you could find small theathers, libraries, study-rooms or even shops.

Structural and architectural elements:

Apodyterium: rectangular or squared room, sometime with an absid, covered with a vaulted roof (or "a crociera"). Usually not heated, with cubicles or shelves where citizens could store clothing and other belongings while bathing. It was used as changing room.
Caldarium: a room to be used for the bath in hot water so there were one or more pools. In the simplect and most ancient examples this room is rectangular with an abse on tone of the shortest side. In the greatest btah houses the caldarium has a poligonal or circolar shape with abses; the vault had a dom orwith multiple abses with barrel vaults.
Frigidarium: this room was for cold baths, usually with a rectangular shape with a pool for the immersion on a side.
Laconicum: this room was used for an hot air bath; it had circular shape sometimes with niches or abses, covered by a dom or with trunkated cone strucure with openings in the highest part. This room was usually exposed to S or SW.
Tepidarium: destined for warm baths, usually with a central plan but with smaller dimensions compared with the other spaces.

Nympheums

A nymphaeum, in the culture of Greece and Rome, is a monument consecrated to the nymphs, especially those of springs. These monuments were originally natural grottoes, which tradition assigned as habitations to the local nymphs. They were sometimes so arranged as to furnish a supply of water ans subsequently, artificial grottoes took the place of natural ones. At the same moment also the "mostre" are considere as nymphaeums, being the terminal part of an acqueduct where a great fountain was.

from the website Wikipedia

Specialized sites about bath houses anf nympheums.

Urbe | Italia | Impero || Acqued.| Anfiteatri | Archi | Circhi | Mausolei | Mura | Palazzi | Ponti | Porte | Strade | Teatri | Templi | Terme | Ville |Altri Rome| Italy| Empire ||Aqued.| Amph.| Arches | Baths | Bridg. | Circus.| Gates | Mausol.|Palaces | Roads | Templ.|Theat.|Villas | Walls |Other