Baths of Caracalla in Rome

The Baths of Caracalla or Antoniane in Rome, a complex including a square area of roughly 330 metres of side, were realised between 212 and 217 after Christ on the will of the Imperator Caracalla.

After the restorations of Aureliano, their function was stopped only by the devastations of the Goths of Vitige, who destroyed their delicate but perfect hydraulic system. The complex of the Baths of Caracalla copies the complex that had at that time been standardized by the Roman architects for edifices with such functions: the big central building, of roughly 220 metres of length for 114 of large was surrounded by a large garden and an external enclosure, fruit of the work of Eliogabalo and Alessandro Severo, with environments of services.
Inside, in addition to the environments of the "frigidarium" (that could not miss), occupied by the swimming pool, by two "tepidaria" and by the "calidarium", a circular room with a diameter of roughly 35 metres, we could find diverse sport areas and apse rooms.
The decorations of the rooms were realised with polychrome marbles, precious metals, water games, pavements with mosaics and a series of sculptures that could count the "Ercole of Glicone", the group of Toro Farnese, and the Flora, nowadays all making part if the Farnese collection, now hosted in the National Museum of Naples. To give an approximate idea of the work and of the importance it could represent for the entire city of Rome, it is enough to say how the Baths of Caracalla could welcome contemporaneously more than 1600 persons, making physical activities in the open air stadium, or simply dedicated to the care of the person in the baths or reading in the internal libraries.