Walkthrough

Terrace

Walk around the terrace which overlooks the Great Bath and is lined with Victorian statues of Roman emperors and governors of Britain. The statues on the terrace date to 1894, as they were carved in advance of the grand opening of the Roman Baths in 1897.

The Roman Baths were not discovered and explored until the late nineteenth century. The view from the Terrace is the first view you have as a visitor to the baths, but what you can see from here is less than a quarter of the site as a whole.

The Roman Baths extends under the modern ground level, beneath adjacent streets and squares, so many visitors are surprised when they discover just how big the site actually is!

People of Aquae Sulis

Explore the Roman Baths collection, which is of international significance. It includes thousands of finds from the site itself. This area of the museum includes film projections of Roman characters to interpret scenes of Roman life.

Many of the objects in the museum tell us about the people who lived and worked in the area and those who visited the great Roman religious spa of Aquae Sulis – the Roman name for Bath.

This area of the museum also contains the Beau Street Hoard, a collection of over 17,000 Roman coins which were discovered in Bath in 2007.

Please be advised that our Life & Death in Aquae Sulis Gallery includes human remains. We have chosen to display the individual featured to tell the story about Bath's archaeology and the insights we can gain about past people from their skeletal remains.

The display of human remains in museums presents an ethical issue, which the Roman Baths Museum adheres to industry guidance, standards and advice on. We will continue to review the inclusion of human remains in our displays and make adaptations following best practice and changes in legislation.

Roman Worship

The people of Aquae Sulis visited the baths and temple to worship the goddess Sulis Minerva. In this area you can see some of the private altars that once littered the temple courtyard and find out about the sacrifices made there.

The Facade of the Four Seasons
This unusual building is known from various sculptured stones found in the excavations that took place for the building of the Pump Room in 1790. A facade with carvings of the four seasons was surmounted by a decorated pediment containing an image of the goddess Luna. The purpose of the building is not clear, but it may have been a place where worshippers might spend the night in the sacred courtyard next to the Temple of the goddess. Here they might have visions in their dreams.

The curse tablets
Some very special objects are the curses, with messages inscribed on sheets of lead or pewter, which were then rolled up and thrown into the Spring where the spirit of the goddess dwelt. The Roman Baths collection of Roman curse tablets, which include Britain’s earliest prayers, has now been included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register of outstanding documentary heritage.

Temple Courtyard

Proceed through the suspended walkway above the Temple Courtyard, and explore the sacred area, where Roman worshippers gathered to pray to the goddess Sulis Minerva. This was the place where sacrifices were made at the great altar and you'll find many altar stones and inscriptions here.

Minerva's head
The gilt bronze head of the goddess Sulis Minerva is one of the best known objects from Roman Britain. Gilt bronze sculptures are rare finds from Roman Britain as only two other fragments are known. The head is probably from the cult statue of the deity which would have stood within the Temple beside the Sacred Spring, and may well date from the first century AD. Read a more detailed description of Minerva's head here.

Haruspex stone
The haruspex stone was found in an excavation in 1965. The inscription reveals that the stone was set up by L. Marcius Memor, a haruspex, who was a special kind of priest. It was dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva and is likely to have supported her statue. The haruspex had the power to advise on the meaning of omens and might be consulted before an important event or proposed course of action.

Sacred Spring

See the Sacred Spring, at the very heart of the site. Naturally hot water at a temperature of 46°C rises here every day and has been doing so for thousands of years.

1,170,000 litres (240,000 gallons) of water rises here daily. In the past this natural phenomenon was beyond human understanding and it was believed to be the work of the ancient gods. In Roman times a Great Temple was built next to the Spring dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva, a deity with healing powers. The mineral-rich water from the Sacred Spring supplied a magnificent bath-house which attracted visitors from across the Roman Empire.

Objects from the Spring
Many objects were thrown into the Sacred Spring as offerings to the goddess, including more than 12,000 Roman coins which is the largest votive deposit known from Britain.

Metal pans, known as paterae, might have been used for making offerings of holy water. They are inscribed with the letters DSM or the words Deae Sulis Minerva which shows that they were dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva.

Spring Overflow
See the Spring overflow which carries surplus water from the hot spring to the original Roman drain, and on to the River Avon four hundred metres away. The Roman plumbing and drainage system is still largely in place today and shows the ingenuity of the Roman engineers. Lead pipes were used to carry hot spa water around the site using gravity flow.

The Roman great drain can be seen through a glass floor in the museum. Some important finds have been made in the drain including a group of 34 gemstones and a mysterious tin mask.

Great Bath

Walk where Romans walked around the steaming pool filled with hot spa water, the magnificent centrepiece of the Roman Baths bathing complex.

The Great Bath is a massive pool, lined with 45 sheets of lead, and filled with hot spa water. It once stood in an enormous barrel-vaulted hall that rose to a height of 20 metres. For many Roman visitors this may have been the largest building they had ever entered in their life.

The bath is 1.6 metres deep, which was ideal for bathing, and it has steps leading down on all sides. Niches around the baths would have held benches for bathers and possibly small tables for drinks or snacks. A large flat slab of stone is set across the point where hot water flows into the bath. It is known today as the diving stone.

Changing Rooms and Saunas

The Roman Baths were in use for four hundred years and underwent many changes. To help visitors understand the way the bath house was used, we have suspended walls on this east part of the site above the Roman walls.

The eastern range of the Roman bath house contained a large tepid bath fed by water that flowed through a pipe from the Great Bath. A series of heated rooms was developed here which became progressively larger until the site reached its maximum extent in the fourth century AD.

The East Baths area of the Roman Baths, adjacent to the famous Great Bath, includes displays immersing visitors in the sights and sounds of the Roman bath house. Projections, soundscapes and CGI reconstructions show the Roman Baths at the height of their popularity as a working, living and leisure space. You can watch, listen and step into the Roman Baths as they would have looked in the first to fourth centuries, as Roman characters of all social classes interact with each other.

Heated Rooms and Plunge Pools

See the cold circular plunge pool which is brought to life with animated projections, and the hot rooms which were heated in Roman times using the hypocaust system.

The western range of baths includes a sequence of pools and heated rooms with good surviving hypocaust pilae showing how their heating system would have worked. The cold circular plunge pool is 1.6 metres deep, and just looking at it makes you shiver!

A film of lifesize bathers is projected on to the walls of the Circular Bath, to show how it was probably used in Roman times. The 'shows' occur every few minutes and last about 90 seconds.

Explore Bath's world heritage

Other things to do in Bath

Walkthrough

The Roman Baths is below the modern street level and has four main features, the Sacred Spring, the Roman Temple, the Roman Bath House and finds from Roman Bath.

Explore Bath's world heritage

Explore Bath's world heritage

Other things to do in Bath

Walkthrough

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