The Roman baths of Vasto were built on the edge of the town of ancient Histonium in the second century AD, and were one of the main attractions of the Roman city for about three centuries.
Damaged by the Sannio earthquake in 346 AD, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, they were progressively abandoned. Its walls were reused as building material, while the tanks and structures of the thermal plants remained buried under a layer of earth of over two meters.
The site of the spa, reused in the thirteenth century for the construction of the convent of San Francesco, was affected by the great landslide of 1956. The redevelopment works of the area carried out almost twenty years later, for the construction of the Arena delle Grazie, today Arena Ennio Morricone, allowed the rediscovery of the site in 1973.
The first excavation works allowed the discovery of a first mosaic, which was exhibited for some years at the Archaeological Museum in Palazzo d’Avalos. In 1997, other excavations were carried out which led to the discovery of the large Neptune Mosaic.
In that year the first mosaic was also brought back to the site, and the site was transformed into an archaeological park.
The Roman Baths of Vasto were made up of a series of rooms arranged on three terraced levels that followed the natural descent of the slope from the Roman Capitol.
It was presumably located where the ruins of the church of San Pietro are now, up to the area of the Macellum, the Roman market which was located at the beginning of the road which then led to the port of Trave, and which today corresponds to the site of the Arena delle Thank you and the church of the same name.
The facility was public and was probably reserved for men, since other contemporary spas, also open to women, had symmetrical environments for the division of the two genders which are not present here.
Many elements of its original structure have come down to us, which allow us to identify thirteen rooms. On the highest level, currently below the church of Sant’Antonio, there was a room with a mosaic flooring of which only a few fragments have been found.
At a slightly lower level there was a large room, perhaps a gymnasium, next to which was positioned the frigidarium, the large cold pool of approximately 170 square meters adorned with the mosaic of Neptune.
At a slightly lower level, on the side now adjacent to Via Adriatica, there were four rooms characterized by brick walls and flooring, originally intended to be heated. In fact, there are some remains of the so-called pilae, brick structures that supported a suspended floor, the suspensura.
In this way, a cavity was created, the hypocaustum, in which hot air circulated from large ovens, the praefurni, which must have been located underneath today’s Via Adriatica.
One of these environments, reused as a cistern for the supply of the convent of San Francesco, built on top of the Roman ruins in the 13th century, today constitutes the access point for visitors and appears as a circular square.
Finally, in the lowest part of the facility, towards the east, there were two small rooms, perhaps originally changing rooms, called apodyteria. Finally, there is a large swimming pool, called natatio, and another room which preserves the mosaic with sea scenes, which was probably heated and constituted the Caldarium of the thermal plant.
The size of the complex and the care taken in its construction, in particular the beautiful bichromatic mosaics, testify to the importance assumed by Histonium in the imperial era and the size of an urban center which must have had dimensions absolutely comparable to those of today.
