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Description of the Baths
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The
building owes its survival to its construction - walls of brick-faced
concrete with vaults supporting the roof. Debris pouring in through a
skylight and filling the interior may also have helped its survival by
offsetting the pressure from outside.
The
main entrance (a) to the baths (pictured right) consists of a portal with half columns
supporting a tympanum. A flight of stairs leads down from there
to the vestibule (b). Unlike the Central Thermae, these baths were not segregated, and were probably used alternately by both sexes.
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The vestibule, pictured opposite and below, has a pierced
vault supported by four plain columns topped by rounded arches. A marble bust of Apollo stands on a
pillar which used to emit a stream of water into the basin below. The
vestibule gives access to all areas of the baths.
In the north
east corner of the vestibule a doorway (c) opens onto a service area
(coloured blue on the plan) which in turn gives access by way of a
corridor to a private dwelling, the House of the Relief of Telephus,
possibly the property of the Balbus family.
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Between the two service areas, a door leads to a large vaulted room (e) with a fine marble floor which served as a combined apodyterium and frigidarium. On the east side of the room is the cold pool (pictured opposite). A
doorway on the north side of the room remains plugged by the volcanic
debris from the eruption (in the left of the picture below).
The room is decorated in the fourth style
with red panels above a dado of pavonazzetto marble panels separated by
bands and capped with a marble rail. The upper zone contains
architectural motifs on a white ground.....On the west side of the tepidarium a door leads through to the vaulted caldarium
(g) which has a large labrum set in an apse on the south wall while on the
north wall is the marble lined hot pool. The walls of the caldarium (pictured below) are
decorated with many small stuccoed panels above a multi-coloured marble
dado and floor...
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The
Suburban Thermae appear to have been a gift to the town by Proconsul M.
Nonius Balbus whose statue and memorial altar stand in the terrace in
front of the building. The baths held up extremely well against the eruption and are in a remarkable state of preservation. The fact
that the shoreline was pushed nearly half a mile out to sea shows that
the volcanic avalanche had not lost any of its strength by the time it reached
the baths.
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A second service area off the south side of the
vestibule (also coloured blue on the plan) held the boilers for heating
the caldarium.
A well lit day room (d), with
large panoramic windows
overlooking the Bay of Naples, opens off the south west corner of the
vestibule. The room was possibly simply used for general relaxation and
convivial conversation. The walls are stuccoed with pilasters supporting
a faux entablature beneath a vaulted ceiling (pictured opposite).
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A door on the south side of the room opens onto the tepidarium (f) (pictured below). This vaulted room is
decorated with stuccoes of warriors framed in panels above a reprise of
the dado from the preceding room. Marble benches line the walls.
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To the east of the tepidarium
is a room (h) with a large heated swimming pool (pictured above). The
room's vaulted ceiling is decorated with ribbed stucco and the room is
lit by four large windows, two of which are set in apses. The frescoed
walls have, like the rest of the bath suite, a marble dado.
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In the north east corner of the room is a doorway which leads through to a laconicum (i), a small round room with an intense dry heat.
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The link here displays a 3D view of the entrance vestibule. For the full virtual tour, please visit the Herculaneum Panoramas page of the Herculaneum Conservation Project website.
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