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 throughout ...

complex in ''

Augusta Treverorum Trier in Rhineland-Palatinate, whose history dates to the Roman Empire, is often claimed to be the oldest city in Germany. Traditionally it was known in English by its French name of Treves. Prehistory The first traces of human settlement i ...

'', modern-day

Trier Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

. 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 230px, Caldarium from the Roman Baths at Bath, England. The floor has been removed to reveal the empty space where the hot air flowed through to heat the floor. A caldarium (also called a calidarium, cella caldaria or cella coctilium) was a room ...

and

tepidarium The tepidarium was the warm (''tepidus'') bathroom of the 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 human body from ...

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 thought ...

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 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 by various tribes, and the establishment of the post-Roma ...

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. O.F.M. Cap.) is a religious order of Franciscan friars within the Catholic Church, one of Three " First Orders" that reformed from the Franciscan Friars Minor Observant (OFM Obs., now OFM ...

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