Bathing in ancient Rome
The preferred beauty ritual by the Romans was the one of going to the thermae, the public establishment. In Rome the centre of public life was the spa. Taking a bath was also a social duty and, as a consequence, the most refined architectural solutions were adopted for their constructions. The colossal dimensions of these establishments cannot be easily imagined.
At their peak in Rome 873 public baths were contemporarily operating. The Caracalla Spa covered an area with a side of 330 meters and could hold up to 2300 bathers. It seems that the Diocletian Spa had even a double capacity. Rome then was supplied with waters of 13 aqueducts, the longest of which was almost 22 kilometres. At the spa one could dry sweat, take a real bath, cold
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or warm in the pools and individual tubs; the quad contained gardens where to leisurely walk, rest halls, stadiums, gyms, libraries and museums. At the entrance there were apodyteria or changing rooms with cloakroom; then one would walk to the gym to oil oneself and exercise. There was a succession of halls and rooms among which also the laconium, a sort of Turkish Bath, where one would perspire for a while and leaving this room would plunge into the calidarium, a circular pool with warm water. After this pool one would enter the
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tepidarium, a smaller room with two lukewarm water, and end up into the frigidarium, a wide non heated open air space where the natatio, a central swimming pool, with cold water, was located and where one could plunge into. The frigidarium was always located facing North while the calidarium, facing South, was a circular space blessed by the afternoon sun and heated by the circulating steam among the suspensurae, small brick columns located under the floor. All around there were small rooms with individual copper tubs with warm water. Under the tubs there was fire to maintain the temperature so that one could bathe comfortably and in a heated environment.
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