The Roman balaneio (baths), located in the Zappeion district, is designed on a specially leveled area 21 meters wide, between two large walls in length and height, carefully built, which incorporated older architectural elements into their masonry. It continues both to the east, into the National Garden, and to the west, onto the Amalia Avenue pavement, and includes two chambers with hypocausts, two hearths (praefurnia) and nine cisterns.
The largest room has 15 hypocaust columns, sometimes cylindrical, sometimes rectangular, and partitions. This is the room of the hot baths (caldarium). Immediately to the north, another oblong hypocaust opens, the floor of which was supported by 17 marble columns in a second use instead of hypocausts. This is the tepidarium room. Two hearths are connected by underground arches to the hot bath hall. Hot air circulated through three small tanks. Vertical holes in the walls of the tanks provided ventilation, as well as heating the walls themselves. This part includes a large rectangular tank of complex construction with marble slabs on the outside, which, through two holes, directed water to two marble basins found in their place.
In the second phase of the 5th-6th centuries AD, the halls of the early 4th century AD were renovated and used again. 4 new cobblestone cisterns are being built. One of them is formed underground with a vaulted roof, in which a well is opened for pumping water. Inside, it has a complex structure with a tiled floor and has traces of careless decoration on the north wall with human figures, fish, birds and crosses. Most likely, these remains of frescoes indicate a later use of the cistern as a refuge or a place of martyrdom in the early Christian years.
In Byzantine times, clay pithos for storing grain were wedged into the floor of the baths, some of which were placed in the southern part of the archaeological site.
The largest room has 15 hypocaust columns, sometimes cylindrical, sometimes rectangular, and partitions. This is the room of the hot baths (caldarium). Immediately to the north, another oblong hypocaust opens, the floor of which was supported by 17 marble columns in a second use instead of hypocausts. This is the tepidarium room. Two hearths are connected by underground arches to the hot bath hall. Hot air circulated through three small tanks. Vertical holes in the walls of the tanks provided ventilation, as well as heating the walls themselves. This part includes a large rectangular tank of complex construction with marble slabs on the outside, which, through two holes, directed water to two marble basins found in their place.
In the second phase of the 5th-6th centuries AD, the halls of the early 4th century AD were renovated and used again. 4 new cobblestone cisterns are being built. One of them is formed underground with a vaulted roof, in which a well is opened for pumping water. Inside, it has a complex structure with a tiled floor and has traces of careless decoration on the north wall with human figures, fish, birds and crosses. Most likely, these remains of frescoes indicate a later use of the cistern as a refuge or a place of martyrdom in the early Christian years.
In Byzantine times, clay pithos for storing grain were wedged into the floor of the baths, some of which were placed in the southern part of the archaeological site.
Translated automatically from Ukrainian. View original
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