VII.5.10 Pompeii. Forum Baths. Entrance to courtyard used for storage.
Excavated 1823?
Other parts of the baths: VII.5.2 VII.5.7 VII.5.8 VII.5.12 VII.5.24 VII.6.17 VII.6.18 Forum Baths Plan
VII.5.10 Pompeii. September 2005. Entrance (36 on plan) to courtyard (33).
The courtyard was used for the storage of wood, charcoal and consumables for the baths.
According to Niccolini (see plan) in the courtyard there were:
Two pillars (34) supporting the roof of the courtyard.
A staircase (35) that went above the roof of the baths.
A corridor (32) to the boiler area.
See Niccolini F, 1890. Le case ed i monumenti di Pompei: Volume Terzo. Napoli.
VII.5.10 Pompeii. Courtyard (33) with column (34) and staircases (35) and (36).
Photo by permission of the Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford. File name Instarchbx208im 070 Source ID. 44396.
DAIR 31.2528. Photo © Deutsches Archäologisches
Institut, Abteilung Rom, Arkiv.
The courtyard is accessible off Vicolo delle Terme.
On the left is the entrance corridor (32) to the praefurnium.
The ramped masonry staircase (35) allows access to the roof of the caldarium.
The circular brick base had a column (34) erected on it after the earthquake, probably to support a sundial.
The smaller arch on the right is entrance (36) to praefurnium (boiler) area.
See Carratelli, G. P. ed., 1990-2003. Pompei: Pitture e Mosaici. Vol. VII. Roma: Istituto della enciclopedia italiana, p. 172.
VII.5.10 Pompeii. 1900. Staircase in courtyard, drawing by Pierre Gusman.
According to Gusman, this was a staircase in VII. Ins. VI.
See Gusman, P.
(1900). Pompei, the city, its life and art. London, William Heinemann.
(p.285).
According to Fiorelli-
“…….. you enter by a doorway into an uncovered courtyard having an entrance from the western roadway, where two [p.235] sturdy brick columns would seem to support the continuation of the acqueduct from the neighbouring insula.”
(“……., si penetra per un andito in un cortile
scoverto avente ingresso dal vico occidentale, dove due [235] robuste colonne
laterizie pare sopportassero la continuazione dell’acquedotto proveniente
dall’isola vicina.)
See Pappalardo, U., 2001. La Descrizione di
Pompei per Giuseppe Fiorelli (1875). Napoli: Massa Editore. (p.96,
description of VII.5.7.)
See Fiorelli, G., 1875. Descrizione di Pompei.
Napoli. (p.235)
Alternative sources, such as Niccolini, have suggested the column was a roof support.
According to Clarke –
“There were three entrances to the furnaces which heated the warm and vapour baths.
The chief one opened onto a court, of an irregular figure, fit for containing wood and other necessaries for the use of the establishment, covered in part by a roof, the rafters of which rested at one end on the lateral walls, and at the other on two columns, constructed with small pieces of stone.
From hence a very small staircase led to the furnaces and to the upper part of the baths.
Another entrance led to a small room (praefurnium), (see VII.5.7), into which projects the mouth of a furnace.
In this rooms were the attendants on the
furnace, or stokers (fornacarii), whose duties it was to keep up the
fires.
Here was found a quantity of pitch, used by the furnace-men to enliven the fires.
The stairs in the praefurnium led up to the coppers.
The third entrance led from the apodyterium of the men’s baths by means of a corridor (see VII.5.2).
It is to be remarked that there is no communication between these furnaces and the bath of the women, which was heated from them.
The furnace was round, and had in the lower part of it, two pipes, which transmitted hot air under the pavements and between the walls of the vapour-baths, which were built hollow for that purpose.
Close to the furnace, at the distance of four inches, (10cms) a round vacant space still remains, in which was placed the copper (caldarium) for boiling water; near which, with the same interval between them, was situated the copper for warm water (tepidarium); and at the distance of two feet (60cms) from this was the receptacle for cold water (frigidarium), which was square and plastered around the interior like the piscina or reservoir before-mentioned. (See VII.6.17or 18).
It is necessary to inform the reader that the terms “frigidarium, tepidarium and caldarium”, are applied to the apartments in which the cold, tepid and hot baths are placed, as well as to those vessels in which the operation of heating the water is carried on.
The furnace and coppers were placed between the men’s and women’s baths, as near as possible to each, to avoid the waste of heat consequent on transmitting the heated fluids through a length of pipe.
The coppers and reservoir were elevated considerably above the baths, to cause the water to flow more rapidly into them”.
See Clarke, W. (1833). Clarke’s Pompeii. Boston, USA, Lilly, Wait, Colman and Holden, (p.
158-9).
Other parts of the baths: VII.5.2 VII.5.7 VII.5.8 VII.5.12 VII.5.24 VII.6.17 VII.6.18 Forum Baths Plan