Terme Di Diocleziano: The Shower Place In Rome

Talking about Roman bath, or Roman Terme, you might think about Caracalla, as one of the most well-perserved Roman bath. However, just inside Rome city center, there are many heritages of Roman Terme which are much older than Caracalla. They might not be the most well-perserved ones, but they did tell a story of their time. I’ve spent a random afternoon inside Terme di Diocleziano. It is a museum and one of the museums under Musei Nazionale Romano, however, it was one of the most beautiful and luxury Termes.

Before you go to visit ...

Terme di Diocleziano is one of the 4 museums of Musei Nazionale Romano. It was an afternoon in summer, with “steaming hot air” in Rome. The ticket I used to enter this museum, is a combined ticket, which I bought days ago at Museo Nazionale Romano. They let you add only €2 more to have the access to all their 4 museums within a short period.

Terme Di Diocleziano/Diocletian (only website in Italian)

Opening hours: Tuesday – Sunday 9.00-19.45 (Every Monday closed, 25 December and 1 January closed)

Last entry in a day: 1 hour before closing time

Price: €10 / €12 (valid for 3 days with single access to all Museo Nazionale Romano)

Free days: 21 March, 25 April, 9 May, 2 June, 29 June, 4 August, 1 September, 13 October

Payment: Cash / Credit Card

The entrance is a "secret"

If you’ve, somehow, walked from Roma Termini (central train station) or Piazza della Repubblica, to Via Nazionale, you won’t miss the beautiful fountain and the magnificent Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri.

To enter Terme di Diocleziano, don’t take the wrong way like me and many others. The entrance is located on the side facing to Roma Termini – a small entrance hidden in the shadow of a garden. The design of the entrance is exactly the way how ancient Romans did.

The museum is partially open to the public, which means, you won’t visit all like what you see from the Internet introduction or images.

A quick history about it

The museum is built right on the original location of the ancient Roman terme. Its entrance in the old time was to the border of Piazza dell Repubblica. It started from the late 200AC. Since late 500BC, the collapse of Roman Empire and the wars around Rome city, brought down this Terme. Also, since the enemy cut and destroyed the famous Roman-built aqueduct which sent the fresh water into Rome city as well as those huge Roman termes, the Terme couldn’t survive. In medieval time, Michelangelo took the reconstruction project from the Pope, and he designed a Basilica.

Now, the Basilica remains since the time of Michelangelo. The part outside the Basilica became the museum, Terme di Diocleziano.

Visiting the 3 parts of Terme di Diocleziano

The cloisters and the exhibition halls (including the most famous Michelangelo cloister) which displays the status from around 50 AC to 200BC, showing quickly the preference towards beauty, art, and culture near pre-empire and the beginning of empire era.

The ancient Terme has now the open chamber without luxury marble decoration. It shows the ancient Roman bricks directly. The museum offers a short video to show this ancient Terme virtually. So, you can have an idea how colorful and beautiful it was before. It is said that the construction costed thousands of Christian slaves’ lives. In return, it was the biggest Roman terme in the world with a capacity of 3000 people. It even offered library, public pools and various hot/cold bath services at that time.

The last part is on the second floor where I found most interesting. The exhibition shows a normal tribe’s life in the pre- Rome time – no Roman Empire, no Repubblica, and even no Romulus and Remus.