22 Feb 2012
A Big Tower and A Church - The Imperial Baths in Trier
Imperial Baths in Trier, view to the caldarium
So Maximinianus started the project. With a size of 250 x 145 metres, the baths covered the site of 4 insulae and were intended to become one of the largest leisure centres in the empire. The insulae were taken down, no matter that at least one of the buildings wasn't some run of the mill apartment block but a posh villa (with a bath of its own). No idea how the emperor convinced the owner to part with the land.
Heating and maintenance system
But then Constantine moved his seat to Constantinople, likely took all the money with him, and the baths remained unfinished. The water pipes never were installed, the frigidarium (cold bath) and the planned buildings lining the inside of the palaestra walls, as well as the entrance hall, never were completed. And that's why I could not do any research in hot water there.
The baths remained an unfinished building for some 50 years. Then Flavius Gratinianus (375-383) became emperor and returned his attention back to Trier. He took a close look at the baths, decided the town didn't really need any more of those but that it would be a waste of good Roman concrete not to use the buildings that already were there. And since they were pretty close to the Imperial Palace, they would make a good garrison for his mounted bodyguard.
Closeup of the - partly reconstructed - main apsis of the caldarium
So the unfinished frigidarium was deconstructed to enlarge the palaestra, the rubble was used to fill in the heating and water tunnels, the rooms beside the tepidarium and the hallways were divided into lots of small chambers and stalls, and a military bath house was added on the north side.
The former caldarium with its three apsides and its anteroom most likely served as shrine of the standard and exercise hall, the tepidarium as entrance, and the small rooms around the yard as living quarters and stables. The building would have offered sufficient space to house about 800 - 1000 men and horses of the mounted guard. The got a few decorative marble plates and frescoes as an extra. Public baths are usually prettier than garrison buildings. :)
The roofs of the various halls were vaulted and, as the up to 7 metres thick foundations allow to conclude, of impressing height.
Some remaining walls (southern sudatorium)
If the baths had ever been used as such, the visitor would have entered them through an entrance hall leading to the palaestra and crossed it - or walked along the colonnades at the walls - to the baths proper. He (or she) would undress, put their clothes in a locker and clean the body with oil and a strigil or scraper. That's the difference today, Gabriele tells me, now the bathing or showering is to get clean and oil, if used, to soften the skin, while in Roman times the oil was used for cleaning and the baths were for relaxation.
Next steps would be the sauna (sudatorium) - both the dressing rooms and the sudatoria existed in double on both sides of the main halls - then the hot bath at the point of the triangle shaped layout of the baths, next the tepid bath (located between the sudatoria) to slowly cool the body, and last the cold bath in the frigidarium. The latter was never finished in case of the Imperial Baths in Trier, but it is was planned to be of the same size as the Aula Palatina. Most modern public pools could hide twice over in such a hall, Gabriele says.
Baths like these can only work with a sophisticated heating system and, in lands with temperatures like we got those last days, also a good insulation. Of course, the baths had a hypocaust heating like we've seen several times already. The floor rested on little brick pillars, and hot steam from large fires would fill the caverns between the floor of the rooms and the ground below the brick pillars. The hot air then went up in tubes the inside the cantilevered walls; the space between the walls proper was filled with pottery and brick shards (how's that for recycling) which are good conductors of heat. That way the marble lining would not suffer condensation either. The system is the same as the one used in the Aula Palatina.
But what about those huge windows, you may say, didn't they let cold air in from the outside and make the halls draugthy as a Scottish castle? Well, the Romans - other than most Scottish lords - had double glazed windows. The making of glass can be dated back to at least Bronze Age Egypt (ca BC 1450) if not Mesopotamia (glass pearls, BC 1600), but it was the Romans who developed clear glass by adding MnO2 to the melting and who used it for windows and not only decorative items. The windows were of the crown style set in metal frames, and that way it was possible to cover even the large windows of the Imperial Baths or the Aula Palatina. And the Romans also figured out that double glazed windows kept the cold out and a greenhouse climate inside the baths.
Some remaining walls in the Imperial Baths
We don't know if there was a wooden gallery to get to the windows higher up, but it seems likely that some sort of access was possible. The upper part of the caldarium apsides is a reconstruction and possible holes for beams may have gone missing in the rubble of the old walls.
There were several boiler houses, praefumia, to provide the steam for the heating and the warm water. The two storey labyrinth of tunnels had been completeld, and partly filled in when the baths became a garrison, during Roman times, and thus is pretty well preserved today. It's also one of the features that makes it possible to guess the layout of the never finished, or altered, parts of the building.
The lower storey was the place for the fresh and waste water and heating systems, while the upper storey were maintenance tunnels - very narrow spaces as the picture above shows. Those are partly open for visitors today. The other large baths in Trier, the Barbara Baths, have only one layer of tunnels.
The tunnels were accessible only from the outside, thus completely separated from the visitor part of the baths. It's nice to get a glimpse of those from the future because in my time I'd never have gone inside such a place. Not even in a bath that wasn't a bath.
The caldarium seen from the outside, complete with vehicles from the future :)
After the Roman administration left Trier in the early 5th century, the Roman buildings fell into decline and were used as quarries, like in so many other Roman towns. But obviously, the Imperial Baths (by which name they go today despite the fact they were never used as such) didn't fare too badly becasue at some point, a noble family moved in, adaptated the caldarium into a castle, the Alderburg, and called themselves 'de Castello'.
The Imperial Baths (Kaiserthermen) is another of those projects that was begun when Trier became Imperial residence. Big fancy public baths had been prestige projects for quite some time, and the second - and also impressive - leisure centre, the Barbara Baths, was about 150 years old already. Still in good shape, mind you, but well, towns always tend to build newer and bigger public and governmental buildings than they really need; that hasn't changed during history.
So Maximinianus started the project. With a size of 250 x 145 metres, the baths covered the site of 4 insulae and were intended to become one of the largest leisure centres in the empire. The insulae were taken down, no matter that at least one of the buildings wasn't some run of the mill apartment block but a posh villa (with a bath of its own). No idea how the emperor convinced the owner to part with the land.
Access
to the water system was particularly easy in that part of the town
which probably was a reason for picking the site. At first, work
progressed nicely; the subterranean tunnel system for heating and water
supply as well as the maintenance tunnels was finished, and some of the
rooms and halls built, progressing from east to west. So we got thecaldarium (hot bath), tepidarium (warm bath), and the foundations for the palaestra,
the large, walled yard where the guests of the baths could do gymnastic
exercises or just sit and have a talk with the neighbour.
But then Constantine moved his seat to Constantinople, likely took all the money with him, and the baths remained unfinished. The water pipes never were installed, the frigidarium (cold bath) and the planned buildings lining the inside of the palaestra walls, as well as the entrance hall, never were completed. And that's why I could not do any research in hot water there.
The baths remained an unfinished building for some 50 years. Then Flavius Gratinianus (375-383) became emperor and returned his attention back to Trier. He took a close look at the baths, decided the town didn't really need any more of those but that it would be a waste of good Roman concrete not to use the buildings that already were there. And since they were pretty close to the Imperial Palace, they would make a good garrison for his mounted bodyguard.
So the unfinished frigidarium was deconstructed to enlarge the palaestra, the rubble was used to fill in the heating and water tunnels, the rooms beside the tepidarium and the hallways were divided into lots of small chambers and stalls, and a military bath house was added on the north side.
The former caldarium with its three apsides and its anteroom most likely served as shrine of the standard and exercise hall, the tepidarium as entrance, and the small rooms around the yard as living quarters and stables. The building would have offered sufficient space to house about 800 - 1000 men and horses of the mounted guard. The got a few decorative marble plates and frescoes as an extra. Public baths are usually prettier than garrison buildings. :)
The roofs of the various halls were vaulted and, as the up to 7 metres thick foundations allow to conclude, of impressing height.
If the baths had ever been used as such, the visitor would have entered them through an entrance hall leading to the palaestra and crossed it - or walked along the colonnades at the walls - to the baths proper. He (or she) would undress, put their clothes in a locker and clean the body with oil and a strigil or scraper. That's the difference today, Gabriele tells me, now the bathing or showering is to get clean and oil, if used, to soften the skin, while in Roman times the oil was used for cleaning and the baths were for relaxation.
Next steps would be the sauna (sudatorium) - both the dressing rooms and the sudatoria existed in double on both sides of the main halls - then the hot bath at the point of the triangle shaped layout of the baths, next the tepid bath (located between the sudatoria) to slowly cool the body, and last the cold bath in the frigidarium. The latter was never finished in case of the Imperial Baths in Trier, but it is was planned to be of the same size as the Aula Palatina. Most modern public pools could hide twice over in such a hall, Gabriele says.
Underground maintenance way
Baths like these can only work with a sophisticated heating system and, in lands with temperatures like we got those last days, also a good insulation. Of course, the baths had a hypocaust heating like we've seen several times already. The floor rested on little brick pillars, and hot steam from large fires would fill the caverns between the floor of the rooms and the ground below the brick pillars. The hot air then went up in tubes the inside the cantilevered walls; the space between the walls proper was filled with pottery and brick shards (how's that for recycling) which are good conductors of heat. That way the marble lining would not suffer condensation either. The system is the same as the one used in the Aula Palatina.
But what about those huge windows, you may say, didn't they let cold air in from the outside and make the halls draugthy as a Scottish castle? Well, the Romans - other than most Scottish lords - had double glazed windows. The making of glass can be dated back to at least Bronze Age Egypt (ca BC 1450) if not Mesopotamia (glass pearls, BC 1600), but it was the Romans who developed clear glass by adding MnO2 to the melting and who used it for windows and not only decorative items. The windows were of the crown style set in metal frames, and that way it was possible to cover even the large windows of the Imperial Baths or the Aula Palatina. And the Romans also figured out that double glazed windows kept the cold out and a greenhouse climate inside the baths.
We don't know if there was a wooden gallery to get to the windows higher up, but it seems likely that some sort of access was possible. The upper part of the caldarium apsides is a reconstruction and possible holes for beams may have gone missing in the rubble of the old walls.
There were several boiler houses, praefumia, to provide the steam for the heating and the warm water. The two storey labyrinth of tunnels had been completeld, and partly filled in when the baths became a garrison, during Roman times, and thus is pretty well preserved today. It's also one of the features that makes it possible to guess the layout of the never finished, or altered, parts of the building.
The lower storey was the place for the fresh and waste water and heating systems, while the upper storey were maintenance tunnels - very narrow spaces as the picture above shows. Those are partly open for visitors today. The other large baths in Trier, the Barbara Baths, have only one layer of tunnels.
The tunnels were accessible only from the outside, thus completely separated from the visitor part of the baths. It's nice to get a glimpse of those from the future because in my time I'd never have gone inside such a place. Not even in a bath that wasn't a bath.
After the Roman administration left Trier in the early 5th century, the Roman buildings fell into decline and were used as quarries, like in so many other Roman towns. But obviously, the Imperial Baths (by which name they go today despite the fact they were never used as such) didn't fare too badly becasue at some point, a noble family moved in, adaptated the caldarium into a castle, the Alderburg, and called themselves 'de Castello'.
They erected a keep - the Geschlechterturm or Family Tower - in the angle between the eastern and southern apsis, and walled in the huge windows of all three apsides, leaving only room for much smaller windows. They got some formidable curtain walls that way. In the early 12th century (during the time of one Archbishop Bruno, 1102-1124), the castle was integrated into the town walls but still in possession of the de Castello family who held the castle at least until the 13th century.
The left middle window of the southern apsis served as gate - the Altport - during that time which points at a pretty thick layer of debris having accumulated over the centuries. That has been cleaned up today and the windows and floors are back at Roman level. The keep served as prison at the time which lets me conclude that the family, while still holding the castle and the responsibility of manning the town defenses, had found somewhat more comfortable living quarters by the 13th century than a draughty old bath with a kaputt heating.
Another view of the caldarium, seen from the palaestra
Settlers used the large palaestra yard alread in the early Middle Ages and built their huts and houses in the shelter of the walls. In the centre stood a church dedicated to St.Gervaise. In 1295, the sisters of the St.Agnetha convent settled in the palaestra and built another church and a nunnery in the north-western corner of the yard, probably using some of the existing walls for part of the building. The nunnery was disbanded and both churches dismantled in 1802 in the wake of the secularization. At the same time, parts of the town walls were broken down as well, including the upper storey of the main apsis; a few years later the old keep (Family Tower of the de Castello family) was abandoned as well.
View from out of a maintenanc tunnel
Instead, a Baroque residence was built which was later used as Prussian garrison (I wonder if they were aware that the area had housed a garrison once before) but it was destroyed during WW2.
After the war, only the lower row of the apsis windows remained, the upper one was reduced to crumbly bits. There was some discussion whether to restore the upper window arcs or to leave the ruins as they were, but restoration turned out to be the better option to prevent the remains from decaying even further. In other parts of the baths, single bricks and stones were replaced, the debris was removed, the ground brought to the level of the baths and some of the maintenance tunnels made accessible, and part of the walls was rebuilt to part of their former height. This work was finished in 1984, right in time for the 2000 year anniversary of Trier.
Remaining walls in the Imperial Baths (closeup)
Besides the remains of the caldarium and some of the adjacent buildings plus some of the tunnels and part of the water and heating system visitors can explore today, the palaestra has been returned to its first - intended - use as space for games and gymnastics. It's today a large meadow framed by reimans of the walls, and the kids play soccer and other games there. The main apsis of the caldarium is sometimes used as stage for theatrical performances.
Settlers used the large palaestra yard alread in the early Middle Ages and built their huts and houses in the shelter of the walls. In the centre stood a church dedicated to St.Gervaise. In 1295, the sisters of the St.Agnetha convent settled in the palaestra and built another church and a nunnery in the north-western corner of the yard, probably using some of the existing walls for part of the building. The nunnery was disbanded and both churches dismantled in 1802 in the wake of the secularization. At the same time, parts of the town walls were broken down as well, including the upper storey of the main apsis; a few years later the old keep (Family Tower of the de Castello family) was abandoned as well.
Instead, a Baroque residence was built which was later used as Prussian garrison (I wonder if they were aware that the area had housed a garrison once before) but it was destroyed during WW2.
After the war, only the lower row of the apsis windows remained, the upper one was reduced to crumbly bits. There was some discussion whether to restore the upper window arcs or to leave the ruins as they were, but restoration turned out to be the better option to prevent the remains from decaying even further. In other parts of the baths, single bricks and stones were replaced, the debris was removed, the ground brought to the level of the baths and some of the maintenance tunnels made accessible, and part of the walls was rebuilt to part of their former height. This work was finished in 1984, right in time for the 2000 year anniversary of Trier.
Besides the remains of the caldarium and some of the adjacent buildings plus some of the tunnels and part of the water and heating system visitors can explore today, the palaestra has been returned to its first - intended - use as space for games and gymnastics. It's today a large meadow framed by reimans of the walls, and the kids play soccer and other games there. The main apsis of the caldarium is sometimes used as stage for theatrical performances.
Sources:
Klaus-Peter Goethert, Römerbauten in Trier. Burgen, Schlösser, Altertümer Rheinland Pfalz, volume 20. Landesmedienzentrum Rheinland-Pfalz, 2005
This website (with drawings of the layout of the baths)(
Klaus-Peter Goethert, Römerbauten in Trier. Burgen, Schlösser, Altertümer Rheinland Pfalz, volume 20. Landesmedienzentrum Rheinland-Pfalz, 2005
This website (with drawings of the layout of the baths)(
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It's a splendid structure, and how nice that the yard is now back in its first intended use as an area for sport and games!
I don't suppose it's known what state the maintenance and water system tunnels were in while the castle and prison were in use, is it? Secret tunnels in a castle - a perfect setting for some cloak-and-dagger stuff if any novelist chose to take it up :-)
I don't suppose it's known what state the maintenance and water system tunnels were in while the castle and prison were in use, is it? Secret tunnels in a castle - a perfect setting for some cloak-and-dagger stuff if any novelist chose to take it up :-)
Carla, already the Romans filled some of the tunnels with the rubble from the dismantled firgidarium, but since there are so many tunnels (the ones running under the short sides of the frigidarium alone are 83 metres each) I doubt they were completely filled in to the ceiling everywhere. There was still access to the heating from the caldarium (which was part of the Alderburg) in the 18th century. So a scene of a pursuit with swirling cloaks and rapiers glittering in the torchlight is not out of option. Maybe it would involve some climbing over rubble. :)
What a wonderful history this place has - and it has certainly proved useful. It's wonderful that it is still in use.
Climbing over rubble adds to the excitement - you can have some heart-stopping moments as the protagonists nearly trigger landslides or catastrophic collapses, or almost get stuck in tight corners :-)
Kathryn, Anerje and Constance, yes I agree it's great the place is still in use. Trier is one of the exemplary towns when it comes to preserving Roman remains. Cologne filled in the excavated forum remains sone years ago and built a shopping mall or something on top. Bastards. :(
The alternating rows of red brick and white stone are very pleasing to the eye. I wonder if they would have been covered in plaster in the day.
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