Caracalla

The Roman baths of Caracalla were openend in 217, they're founded by Septimius Severus. It got its name from Septimius son Caracalla who finished the building. Caracalla was a nickname which meant mantle. The baths were used untill the sixth century, when the Goths destroyed the pipenetwork.The building has sides of 330 m. and is symmetric and when it was used there was a wall around it.There's a bit left of that, but the mainbuilding is kept the best.

About 1500 people could take a bath at the same time.There were baths, gyms and massagerooms (unctorium).The interior was very luxurious.We can find a lot of the interior back in the museums .The block is very cosy,there were very small and also very large rooms which made a nice contrast.

When we enter the original entrence, we can see the leavings of the dressingrooms at our right. When we walk a little bit furhter and go to the right we'll come in a big open colonnade. When we go back we go to a room where probably the laconicum was, what we now would call a Turkish bath. We enter the caldarium ( the hot water bath), the caldarium is a round room ,with a copula that's even higher than the copula of the Pantheon. The copula was build so that the warmth of the afternoonsun was utilised the best. From the caldarium we can enter the tepidarium ( the lukewarm bath), which is a smaller room. The caldarium connects to the central room, where the people could relax before they took a bath.The frigidarium ( the cold water bath) is right across the tepidarium.

The baths are nowadays only used in the summer. Because it's so beautiful it's used as the decor of operas.

these are the beautiful ruins of Caracalla