We've already viewed the Suburban Baths located right on the beach of Herculaneum. Now let's take a look a the baths located in the center of town, appropriately nicknamed the Central Baths.
Going to Google Eath, here is what the Central Baths look like today. They included everything from the large covered rooms at the center of the picture down to the bottom edge of the picture. The covered building at the upper left is not related to the baths - it is the College of Augustali shown on
this map. The upper right of the picture is Casa del Salone Nero. Now that we have our bearings, let's take a look inside.
What, you need more info about what the Central Baths consist of? Let's take a closer look...I've annotated each room in the photo to the right. Men would enter into the waiting room (A), then go to the cold room (B), and finally end up in the hot room (C). Women would enter into the waiting room (F), move on to the tepid room (E), and end up in the hot room (D). Although it looks initially like the women were given less space than the men, the women also had a vestibule (mislabeled E again, to the south of F) for their use. Note the women did not want a cold bath - they traded it for a tepid bath.
Entering the women's waiting room (F), this is what we saw...a beautiful tile mosaic on the floor. While others may wax poetically about what the figures represent, I don't really care. I just thought it was artistic.
Looking around the room, one can see the shelf with recesses for clothes storage and the bench below that where one could park one's rear to undress.
A view of the other side of the room.
Looking through this doorway we can see the tepid room (E). Nikki is 5 feet tall...that gives you a notion of the doorway height.
Let's go take a peek inside, shall we?
The tepid room also has shelves for storage. In the walls are regularly spaced piped through which hot air passed to warm the room. In the left corner one can see the small basin for washing feet. The beautiful floor is also hollow so hot air could circulate there also.
A view of the other side of the room.
The barrel ceiling is designed this way for a very specific reason. In rooms with heated air, condensation can be a problem. A flat roof would have allowed this condensation to drip on the heads of the bathers. A barrel room allows the condensation to follow the curve of the roof and drip harmlessly down the walls.
An opening that allowed light, along with a light fixtured added in modern times.
A close-up of the tiles on the floor.
And finally we enter the hot bath (D), with the bathtub along the far side of the room.
This room had similar features to the tepid room, with hot air in the walls and floor. The women's rooms had a separate boiler that was located right behind the rear wall, and more closely spaced pipes in the walls. This probably means that the women liked their rooms and water hotter than their male counterparts.
Not quite sure what this is...will research it when I have time.
An original bench still resides in the room.
A second bench. And that ends our tour of the women's baths. They still exist in amazingly fine condition and are one of the high points of a visit to Herculaneum.
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