Rome - Baths of Caracalla

(Local Name: Terme di Caracalla) The Baths of Caracalla to the south of Rome, begun by Septimus Severus in A.D. 206 and completed by Caracalla in 216, were much more than public baths. Nowadays they would be called a "leisure center", containing as they did a whole system of baths (hot and cold baths, a swimming pool, sweat baths with both dry and damp heat), facilities for gymnastics and sport, pleasant rooms for social intercourse, gardens to walk in, lecture rooms and libraries, hairdressers and shops. These various needs were met in a massively imposing structure covering an area 300m/1,100ft square, a complex of gigantic halls with huge columns and piers, domes and semi-domes, barrel vaulting and cross vaulting, which could accommodate some 1,500 people at a time. The floors and walls were covered with marbles, mosaics and frescoes. The leisure needs of the population have never been catered for with such magnificence as in the Roman baths; even in ruin their splendor is still apparent.