Tepidarium in the Forum Thermae at Pompeii
Tepidarium by Théodore Chassériau, 1853
The Tepidarium by Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1881

The tepidarium was the warm (tepidus) bathroom of the Roman baths heated by a hypocaust or underfloor heating system. The speciality of a tepidarium is the pleasant feeling of constant radiant heat, which directly affects the human body from the walls and floor.

A notable example at Pompeii is covered with a semicircular barrel vault, decorated with reliefs in stucco, and round the room a series of square recesses or niches divided from one another by telamones. The tepidarium was the great central hall, around which all the other halls were grouped, and which gave the key to the plans of the thermae. It was probably the hall where the bathers first assembled prior to passing through the various hot baths (caldarium) or taking the cold bath (frigidarium). The tepidarium was decorated with the richest marbles and mosaics; it received its light through clerestory windows on the sides, the front, and the rear, and would seem to have been the hall in which the finest treasures of art were placed.[1]

In the Baths of Caracalla, the Farnese Hercules and the Farnese Bull (now in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples), the two gladiators, the sarcophagi of green basalt, and numerous other treasures were found during the excavations by Pope Paul III.[1]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Wikisource One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Tepidarium". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 636.


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Els Munts (Roman villa)

atrium and alcover stone slab floor. There were heated rooms: caldaria, tepidaria, and furnaces with hypocaustum, and cold rooms (frigidaria). A furnace

Vault (architecture)

which might exist by the erection of cross walls and buttresses. In the tepidaria of the Thermae and in the basilica of Constantine, in order to bring the

Saalburg

It has an apodyterium (changing room), a frigidarium (cold bath), two tepidaria (lukewarm baths', a caldarium (hot bath) and a sudatorium (sauna). The

Agnano

baths included an apodyterium, frigidarium, and several warm rooms: (tepidaria, caldaria and laconica). The laconicum was heated through openings both

Baths at Ostia

sun-bathing room (heliocaminus), an elliptical sweating room (laconicum) two tepidaria and a caldarium with three pools. The palaestra was surrounded on three

Caesaraugusta

arranged in consecutive axis, following the sequence natatio, frigidaria, tepidaria and caldaria. The interior was decorated with marble slabs on the floors

Roman villa of Faragola

and stucco with frames of palmettes and ovoli also characterise the two tepidaria (warm rooms) (18, 25), while pink-coloured breccia marble is used to for

Sentinum

(exercise area) with peristyle, several apodyteria, frigidaria with pools, tepidaria and caldaria. Ancient Rome portal Ancient Ostra Archaeological Park of