Baths of Caracalla

The Baths of Caracalla stand in southern Rome, a vast ruined complex of Roman public baths built early in the 3rd century. They occupy the site of an earlier garden estate laid out by Gaius Asinius Pollio in the reign of Augustus. The baths were heated by a hypocaust system and supplied with water by a dedicated aqueduct. After centuries of use they were abandoned in the 6th century when the water supply was cut off during the Gothic War. The baths once welcomed up to eight thousand visitors a day and were counted among the seven wonders of Rome in the 5th century. Their scale and engineering inspired later buildings from the Basilica of Maxentius to New York’s original Pennsylvania Station. Excavations have uncovered famous sculptures such as the Farnese Bull and Hercules, now housed in museums, and a two-storey domus with frescoed ceilings beneath the ruins. Visitors walk among the remains of the frigidarium, caldarium and palaestra, their marble floors and porphyry columns still visible. The central area shows restored mosaics and figure-adorned capitals, while subterranean passages reveal the Mithraeum and the heating furnaces. The surrounding walls and cisterns frame long views across the site, where traces of ancient gardens and Renaissance vineyards linger in the landscape.