Pompeii's leisure baths

The buried city near Naples reveals early works of erotica

The "suburban baths" resurface to see the (red) light. Promiscuous pools, erotic paintings, and the only lesbian scene survived to reach our times, and are the reasons why they were nicknamed "the baths of pleasure" and have become one of the main tourist attractions in Pompeii, the most-viewed archaeological site in Italy.
Uncovered 50 years ago, and known for decades only to archaeologists, the baths will open to the public this month, thanks to restoration workspaid for by Compagnia di San Paolo in the framework of the Attice project.
Located outside the walls near the Porta Marina gate, the suburban baths are a public building dating to the age of Augustus, designed with a single sector and a common change room for both men and women. The place was decorated with paintings featuring erotic subjects. According to some scholars, these could be pictorial illustrations for "services" offered by an institution halfway between a relaxing and curative institution and a whorehouse.
Unlike older baths in Pompeii, such as the baths in the Forum and the Stabian baths, but similar to the more recent ones - the downtown baths that were being built when the Mount Vesuvius eruption occurred - the suburban baths have a sequence of rooms with a change room, a cold pool, a lukewarm pool, a small sweating room, and a hot pool.
Later, another room was added: a large warm pool, built with a very advanced technique that kept water temperature constant through the use of a double chamber. Inside, one of the most noteworthy decorations is a fountain with a polychrome mosaic, in the cold pool, also frescoed with depictions of marine subjects and ships.
"The opening of the suburban baths," explains Superintendent Pietro Giovanni Guzzo, "is part of a comprehensive management strategy for the Pompeii excavation site. On the one hand we proceed with organic, complex interventions on the monuments in order to ensure their adequate conservation; on the other, we open new buildings to visitors, thus maintaining a high-level offer for tourists."
In fact, Menander's house and Julius Polybius' house will also be opened after extensive restoration that readied them for tourist enjoyment. However, in the first months of 2002, Vettii's house and the whorehouse will close for restoration.
The "resurrection" of the suburban baths is due to a joint public and private effort. "The work plan for the suburban baths and the whorehouse was proposed by the Archaeological Superinten-dence of Pompeii to Compagnia di San Paolo, that accepted it and took charge of it," explains Mr. Guzzo. "This enacts a concrete collaboration between public institutions and private companies, much like in the case of the sponsorship by Würth for the roof of the warm pool in the same baths."

Publication Date: 2001-12-02
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=667