(Insula 4, nos. 5.10.18) The largest of the city’s bath complexes, taking up an entire block of Regio IX, the Central Baths were under construction at the time of the eruption, and incorporated innovations which had been introduced to the architecture of bath complexes in Rome, such as the Baths of Nero.

The eruption ensured that the site remained in an unfinished state, but the ambitious plan can be identified just from the façade, which overlooks the courtyard. The Baths were located at the crossroads between Via di Nola andVia Stabiana, but the main entrance opened onto Via di Nola at number 18, whereby one directly accessed the palaestra (gym). The bathing rooms are arranged in sequence, with the apodyterium, frigidarium, tepidarium and then thelaconicum -a dome-vaulted room with four apses, where one would be exposed to hot and dry air. Following the laconicumwe have the calidarium,whose walls are defined by a series of rectangular and semi-circular niches which must have housed stuccoes and marble statues. One can certainly see evidence of incompleteness everywhere. The basins lack marble coverings, and there are numerous architectural elements, such as capitals and columns, which lie scattered in various rooms and which artisans were still working on in situ at the time of the eruption. They were likely intended to be used in the portico of the palaestra. What is striking is the presence of several windows, which would have provided ample light and plentiful ventilation of the rooms. Unlike in other bath complexes present in the city, there was no division between female and male areas, and thus it is assumed that men and women were permitted to enter at different times.

Dateof excavation: 1817; 1836; 1877-1878.