Baths of Diocletian Viale Enrico de Nicola, 79, Roma

The Baths of Diocletian (Terme di Diocleziano) are the most imposing thermal complex ever built in Rome. Erected between 298 and 306 CE, they spanned more than 13 hectares and could accommodate up to 3000 people at the same time, within a structure consisting of a series of environments such as gymnasia, libraries, a swimming pool of more than 3500 square metres and those rooms that were the heart of every thermal complex: the frigidarium(cold bath), the tepidarium (lukewarm bath) and thecalidarium (hot bath). It was precisely these latter spacious rooms the ones converted by Michelangelo into the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels and the Christian Martyrs: in the other environments arose the Carthusian Monastery, conceived by the artist himself.