National Museum of Rome

National Museum of Rome
Baths of Diocletian
Octagonal Hall
Palazzo Massimo
Palazzo Altemps

The National Museum of Rome, which possesses one of the world's most important archaeological collections, is housed in three different facilities: the Baths of Diocletian, which include the Octagonal Hall, the Palazzo Massimo, and the Palazzo Altemps.The complex restructuring and renovation effort is partially completed, but work is still under way. For this reason, only a portion of the Museum's exhibitions can currently be visited.
The historic headquarters of the Museum is the Baths complex built by Diocletian between the last years of the third century A.D. (the dedicatory inscription dated 306 A.D. is conserved in a fragmentary state in the Museum).
The building of the Baths, the largest in the ancient world, included many rooms besides the traditional calidarium, tepidarium and frigidarium-which were designed to hold 3,000 people at the same time. Ther was a natatio or frigidarium for swimmers (large open air swimming pool) and various other rooms, meeting rooms, libraries, nympheums, dressing rooms, concert rooms and rooms for physical exercises etc.
Baths of Diocletian
Following the transfer of the materials to the Palazzo Massimo, massive restoration work was begun on the Baths complex (at present the rooms are open to the public on a partial, irregular basis).
Rooms I-IX: exhibition of funerary materials (sarcophagi, etc.) and of artifact from the Baths themselves, or from other major public buildings, such as the decorations on the Temple of Aurelian.
Rooms X-XII: temporary exhibits.
The so-called "Masterpiece Roooms" have been set aside for the Epigraphical Department, which consists of almost 10,000 inscriptions. Plans also call for the first floor of the "Michelangelo" cloister to house a section on the protohistory of the City of Rome.

A model of the baths of Diocletian

A Sketch of the remains of the baths by Ettienne Du Pérac 16th Century

Aerial photo of the baths
Overview on the architecture of the baths of Diocletian
One of the most fascinating monuments in Rome, is The Bath of Diocletian, located in the northeast of the Viminal hill – which is found in the heart of today’s Rome. It took around seven to eight years, from 298 AD to 306 AD, for it’s completion. Looking at the plan of the baths one can see that the area of ninety meters square is divided into six main compartments, the caldarium- a circular room where the hot bath is found, leading to an oval room called the tepidarium which are the warm baths, leading to the frigidarium, a cold pool and to the natatio, a lukewarm pool. On the sides of the frigidarium are two palaestras, which were areas to wind down, relax, socialize, and even exercise. This large structure was able to provide accommodation for over 3200 bathers. It was the largest and grandest public bath built at its time. Its exterior was made of white stucco giving the visitor the impression that it’s white marble. The interiors were lavishly decorated with marble, mosaic, and statues. Today, the great vault, which is a rectangular room with an area of around 60 by 24 m rests, it is visually supported by three 15m columns of Egyptian granite but in fact it lies on eight large concrete piers.
It is interesting to note that these baths were built by the Roman emperor Diocletian (as the name of the bath suggests), who built this grand building after dividing the Roman empire. Therefore, the purpose of the building was to compensate for the losses or turn a blind eye to the failures and try to appeal to the public eye by building an impressive public structure.


Our view on the building
Discovering this fact reminded us (of an interesting quote we had come across in Spiro Kostof’s ‘History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals’, “…repeatedly civilization has exemplified Patrick Geddes’ dictum that the perfection of the architectural form does not come till the institution sheltered by it is on the point of passing away.”
The Baths of Diocletian, show both, the advancement and ‘perfection’ of engineering expertise as well as their ability to shape their environment and thus have some degree of control over it. After all the baths were built by a man who wanted to display his power and control through this monument after losing his power and control over the Roman Empire.

How important was the bath of Diocletian to its surroundings?
The baths in ancient Rome, I think, could be equivalent to today’s malls. Romans went to the baths everyday in the afternoon to meet friends, socialize, unwind and enjoy their free time. During the time of Hadrian baths were not mixed, the baths either had separate timing for women or had separate baths for women.
If you were to go back in time and visit a bath, the first thing you would probably do before entering is pay a fee and enter a dressing room with shelves around the walls called apodyteria. You would then enter the hot baths, the caldarium, and then spend time in a heated hall, similar to a present day sauna, called the tepidarium. And finally dive in the frigidarium, which is a pool for swimming open to the sky.

Do Roman baths have any significance in today’s architecture and society?

It is interesting to note that although baths no longer exist in the West, in the East, especially in Islamic cultures, baths still exist and going to a public bath is still part of people’s everyday lives. One example is the public bath of Tripoli called hammam AlAbed, North of Lebanon. Although the concept and purpose of the hammam is similar to the Roman baths, the architecture is Ottoman.
Where did all the water come from?
It is important to note that all this large supply of water for the baths came from aqueducts – channels built with waterproof cement and covered with slabs of stone that directed water into reservoirs. The aqueducts themselves are a work of architectural wonder. They were usually built with materials that were readily available, usually, stone, brick, or concrete. Some were set on arches while others ran underground. The very first aqueduct to bring water to Rome was built in 312 B.C. Today, some aqueducts are still in use. For example, the source of water for the Trevi fountain still comes from an aqueduct built during ancient times.
Address: V.le E. De Nicola, 79


Octagonal Hall
 
 
The Octagonal Hall stands at the southwest corner of the central complex of the Baths of Diocletian, in which it may have served as a passage area.
The most important of the works on exhibit are the Lyceum Apollo and the Aphrodite of Cyrene. The first, and IInd century A.D. copy of the original by Praxiteles, was found near the Baths of Trajan, by the Church of St. Peter in Chains, while the Aphrodite comes from Cyrene, in Libya, and represents a splendid copy from the middle of the IInd cent. A.D. of a late-Hellenistic original. All of the sculptures on display come from bath complexes, including the Anadyomene Aphrodite, the Heracles, the Lance-Bearer and the Cnidian Aphrodite.
Address: Via Romita



Palazzo Massimo
 
Formerly the site of the preparatory school "Massimiliano Massimo", the building was constructed in 1883-87 by Camillo Pistrucci in imitation of the noble residences of the early Roman baroque period.
Exhibited in the central hall are works that illustrate the political and ideological program of Augustus, including the statue of Augustus dressed as the Pontifex Maximus from the Via Labicana and the pictorial frieze of the noble sepulchre from the Esquiline hill.
The first floor offers iconographic works from the Age of the Flavians to the late Empire, with examples of the decorations used on imperial villas and aristocratic residences.In the section featuring the physical activities related to gymnasiums and public baths, visitors can admire two copies of the Discus Thrower by Myron.
The following section holds important sarcophagi, including an oval-shaped work from Acilia.
The second floor offers in-depth documentation on mosaic and pictorial decorations from the Ist cent. B.C. to the late Imperial Age.
On the basement level, a rich coin collection is displayed, including extremely rare pieces, such as the medaillon of Theodoric, the silver piasters of the Pontifical State with views of Rome snd the four ducats of Pope Paul II. The exhibition is completed by a section on luxury in the Roman world, featuring a rich selection of jems and jewels.
Address: Piazza dei Cinquecento, 68



Palazzo Altemps

The Palazzo was commissioned by Girolamo Riario (1443-1488). In 1568 it passed into the hands of the Altemps family, which had it enlarged and built the courtyard. This feature of the building, without a doubt its most handsome, is credited to Martino Longhi the elder.Restoration work has been under way since 1984, and steps are being taken to arrange the exhibit.Apart from the Ludovisi Throne, which is kept in the Palazzo Massimo, the collection boasts works of great artistic value, such as the Gaul who kills himself together with his wife, a copy of an originalfrom Pergamon; the Ludovisi Ares, a copy traceable to Lysippus; the Castelporziano mosaic (IInd cent.), one of the most important known Roman mosaics; the Ludovisi Hermes, copy of a bronze original by the school of Myron; the Aphrodite of Cnidus, a copy of the reknowned Aphrodite by Praxiteles, and a colossal sarcophagus depicting a battle between Romans and Barbarians.

Address: Via di S.Apollinare
    The seat of the National Roman Museum at Palazzo Altemps houses important collections of antiquities consisting of Greek and Roman sculptures that in the 16th and 17th centuries belonged  to various families of the Roman nobility. The placement of the statues inside the rooms reproduces the antiquarian taste for the ostentatious display typical of that time.  A feature common to the sculptures is the recourse to additional restoration, desired by collectors not only for aesthetic sense but also to confer dignity to the figures represented.
    The Altemps Collection - The important collection of antiquities of Cardinal Markus Sitticus abounded in some one hundred artworks, then passed to several different properties. In Palazzo Altemps there are still four large statues located in the northern portico and other sculptures decorating the staircase.
    The Boncompagni Ludovisi Collection - In the rooms on the ground floor and the first floor are exhibited 104 sculptures that the Italian State purchased from the  Ludovisi-Boncompagni family in 1900. Among the most representative examples: the Ludovisi Acrolith and the Ludovisi Throne, the Gaul Killing Himself and His Wife, the Athena restored by Algardi, the Ares restored by Bernini and the Grande Ludovisi Sarcophagus.
    The Mattei Collection - In the galleries on the sides of the courtyard and in a room of the first floor are exhibited some ancient sculptures that originally adorned the villa and gardens of Ciriaco Mattei on the Caelian Hill: the Dacian in antique yellow marble is particularly renowned.

     The Drago Collection - In the southern loggia are exhibited four reliefs of the collection once belonging to the Del Drago family; they were known and drawn since the 15th century, studied and admired by Winckelmann as well.

    The Egyptian Collection - The sculptures on display in the so-called Apartments of D'Annunzio were found in Rome in the area of the Campus Martius where once the great Sanctuary dedicated to Isis stood; they partly come from Egypt and partly are the result of a Roman production after the Egyptian fashion that developed abreast with the spread of the Egyptian cults in the West. In the room of the Mother Goddesses is exhibited the head of the Ephesian Artemis unearthed in 2009 during the urban excavation campaign in Via Marmorata