Roman Bath House
I’m sure that most of you have heard about the expression “bathing like the Romans”. The roman bath house was actually a public building were people would bath, just like we have modern public swimming pools today. They were also a way of socializing as people from all over the corners of the town would gather here and exchange a couple of words while taking a bath.
Every roman city had at least one such building where people went and stayed for hours almost every day. The Roman nobles had servant who accompanied them to carry their towels and get them something to drink. They all wore special sandals as the floors were hot and they needed some footwear to protect their feet. The wealthy Romans would exercise and then their servants covered them in oil and scraped it off using a special tool called a "strigil" which helped them take off the dirt. Water came from close carried by rivers and transported to the roman bath house using an aqueduct.
Just like church is divided into different parts, the roman bathing houses were generally divided into 3 main rooms: the caldarium, the tepidarium and the frigidarium, each one of these terms standing for hot bath, warm bath and cold bath. Men and women were separated as they have separate rooms. These public baths had a great significance in the lives of the Romans. Everybody had access to them, from men to women, the wealthy people and even the slaves. You could do about anything in there, talk about politics, read, eat and even drink.
The public bath houses were like a combination between the modern libraries, malls, bars, gyms and even spas. Emperors were the ones that generally built these public baths in order to gain respect and admiration as these building would last as monuments. Romans who were really rich could afford to make their own private bath house around their private villas. If a public bath did not have a special room for women, the women of Rome would rather not frequent these buildings and this would become a great place for prostitutes to look for future clients.
The Romans had developed a special heating system called a hypocaust. They had a furnace that provided hot air coming through special holes in the bathing rooms. The rooms that needed a greater amount of heat were located the closest to the furnace. The furnace was simply stuffed in with more wood to produce a constant amount of heat.
The location of the public roman baths depended on wherever there was a hot spring. When they found one, they would build a public bath around it. There are a lot of these remarkable constructions that stand up in pride even today. The most famous of Roman bath houses are the baths of Varna, the baths of Caracalla and many more in Rome and even England. These buildings have fascinated archeologists for many years as they are an important vestige telling us a lot about the Romans’ culture.
Every roman city had at least one such building where people went and stayed for hours almost every day. The Roman nobles had servant who accompanied them to carry their towels and get them something to drink. They all wore special sandals as the floors were hot and they needed some footwear to protect their feet. The wealthy Romans would exercise and then their servants covered them in oil and scraped it off using a special tool called a "strigil" which helped them take off the dirt. Water came from close carried by rivers and transported to the roman bath house using an aqueduct.
Just like church is divided into different parts, the roman bathing houses were generally divided into 3 main rooms: the caldarium, the tepidarium and the frigidarium, each one of these terms standing for hot bath, warm bath and cold bath. Men and women were separated as they have separate rooms. These public baths had a great significance in the lives of the Romans. Everybody had access to them, from men to women, the wealthy people and even the slaves. You could do about anything in there, talk about politics, read, eat and even drink.
The public bath houses were like a combination between the modern libraries, malls, bars, gyms and even spas. Emperors were the ones that generally built these public baths in order to gain respect and admiration as these building would last as monuments. Romans who were really rich could afford to make their own private bath house around their private villas. If a public bath did not have a special room for women, the women of Rome would rather not frequent these buildings and this would become a great place for prostitutes to look for future clients.
The Romans had developed a special heating system called a hypocaust. They had a furnace that provided hot air coming through special holes in the bathing rooms. The rooms that needed a greater amount of heat were located the closest to the furnace. The furnace was simply stuffed in with more wood to produce a constant amount of heat.
The location of the public roman baths depended on wherever there was a hot spring. When they found one, they would build a public bath around it. There are a lot of these remarkable constructions that stand up in pride even today. The most famous of Roman bath houses are the baths of Varna, the baths of Caracalla and many more in Rome and even England. These buildings have fascinated archeologists for many years as they are an important vestige telling us a lot about the Romans’ culture.
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