Stabian Baths, Pompei (must see)

The Stabian Baths are the oldest bath complex discovered in Pompei. Covering 3500 square metres, they are also the largest in the city. Located on Via Stabiana, like the nearby Forum Baths, they are divided into men’s and women’s facilities. The two newer baths in Pompei, the Central and Suburban Baths, both had one large changing facility.

At the entrance to the baths, there is a courtyard, which would have been used as a gymnasium. The yard is surrounded on three sides by colonnades, with a 1.5 metre deep swimming pool on the other side. A door in the right hand corner of the longest colonnade leads to the men’s bath house. The frigidarium, a room for cold bathing, is round, with four corner niches and the bath in the centre. This is the only room for which there is not an equivalent in the women’s section.

Both sides of the bath house feature a whitewashed apodyterium, a tepidarium for warm baths and a caldarium, furthest from the entrance, which was used for hot baths. The baths are richly decorated, with many statues discovered in the ruins. The building has vaulted, ornately decorated ceilings throughout. It was believed to have been built as a symbol of the wealth of Pompei’s ruling classes.