door, Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri
Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri
Carthusian Charterhouse (brought to us by Michelangelo)
National Roman Museum. November 2016
The baths were commissioned by Maximian in honor of co-emperor Diocletian in 298 CE, the same year he returned from Africa. Evidence of this can be found in bricks from the main area of the baths, which distinctly show stamps of the Diocletianic period. This evidence shows the effect of the massive project on the brick industry in that all work by them was redirected and under control of the emperor. Building took place between the year it was first commissioned and sometime between the abdication of Diocletian in 305 and the death of Constantius in July 306.
(Wikipedia)
The baths of Diocletian were the largest ever built in the Roman Empire and remained functioning until the invading Goths destroyed the aqueducts providing the baths (and Rome) with the copious amounts of water needed to survive. (brilliant strategy since Rome then capitulated to a very small invading force)
The Baths of Caracalla were a site unto themselves and the inspiration for New York's original Penn Station [see: Penn Station]. I visited them in their ruinous splendor to see "Roman Baths". Diocletian's bathhouse, however, was so vast that it extended under what is now Roma Termini Station as well as Piazza della Repubblica. The baths were 110,000 m2 in size (that is more than FIVE St Peter's Basilicas). In modern Rome, the Baths of Diocletian have become incorporated into the fabric of the city and that is what made them stand out for me. I was not visiting the baths, I was visiting other locations that were built in the ruins of a vast complex. Wow!
A large church was made from just one section of the baths (the frigidarium - I had a good chuckle) and next to it, a large cloister - re-purposed by Michelangelo. There was still space leftover to house a portion of the Roman National Museum collection. Parts of the baths existed into the 19th century and were demolished in the modernization of Rome (scandalous!). I was simply in awe of its magnitude. It's a wonder no one in a place like Las Vegas has ever thought to recreate them. I don't want a pyramid - I want a recreated Roman Bath!
The Baths of Diocletian were built on a scale that did not repeat itself until the modern age. Even in ruin they were used and remained grand. How much of everything built today will stand that test of time?