The Forum Baths of Trier (German: Thermen am Viehmarkt or Viehmarktthermen) are a ruin of a

Roman bath In ancient Rome, (from Greek , "hot") and (from Greek ) were facilities for bathing. usually refers to the large imperial bath complexes, while were smaller-scale facilities, public or private, that existed in great numbers throughou ...

complex in ''

Augusta Treverorum Augusta Treverorum (Latin for "City of Augustus in the Land of the Treveri") was a Ancient Rome, Roman city on the Moselle River, from which modern Trier emerged. The date of the city's founding is placed between the construction of the first Rom ...

'', modern-day

Trier Trier ( , ; ), formerly and traditionally known in English as Trèves ( , ) and Triers (see also Names of Trier in different languages, names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle (river), Moselle in Germany. It lies in a v ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. The baths were discovered in 1987.

History

Roman Period

The Forum Baths of Trier were converted in the 4th century C.E. from some older buildings, dated to around the 2nd century C.E. The structure encompassed 8364 m² The bath house utilized the passive heating of the sun, like many Roman baths, and oriented the

caldarium image:Caldarium.JPG, 230px, ''Caldarium'' from the Roman baths at Bath, Somerset, Bath, England. The floor has been removed to reveal the empty space where the hot air flowed through to heat the floor. A (also called a ''calidarium'', ''cella ca ...

and

tepidarium The ''tepidarium'' was the warm (''tepidus'') bathroom of the thermae, 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 ...

to the south, and the

frigidarium A ''frigidarium'' is one of the three main bath chambers of a Roman bath or ''thermae'', namely the cold room. It often contains a swimming pool. The succession of bathing activities in the ''thermae'' is not known with certainty, but it is tho ...

to the north. Along with the other bathhouses, the Forum Baths remained in use through the end of the fourth century. But the complex fell out of use during the early fifth century as Trier was repeatedly sacked during the

Migration Period The Migration Period ( 300 to 600 AD), also known as the Barbarian Invasions, was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories ...

Later Use

In the 13th century, the remains of the bath began being used as a quarry for local buildings. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the

Capuchin Order The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin (; postnominal abbr. OFMCap) is a religious order of Franciscan friars within the Catholic Church, one of three " First Orders" that reformed from the Franciscan Friars Minor Observant (OFMObs, now OFM), the o ...

built some of the buildings for their monastery over the eastern part of the bathhouse. In 1802, the monastery was dissolved and nine years later, in 1811, the garden was transformed into a cattle market (German: Viehmarkt), from which the ruins get their name.

Gallery

File:Trier BW 2012-04-06 16-24-40.jpg, Current state of Remains File:Trier Viehmarkttermen rechts.jpg, Current state of Remains File:Trier Thermenmuseum BW 1.JPG, External View of Museum

References

External links