Recent development-led excavations have uncovered part of a large public bathhouse in Nijmegen (The Netherlands), ancient Ulpia Noviomagus Batavorum. Previously, part of a heated pool (alveus) had already been discovered, but the new excavations revealed several heated and cold rooms, covering an area of around 4900 m², making it the largest Roman bathhouse ever discovered in the Netherlands (until now, the largest baths in the Netherlands were in Forum Hadriani/Voorburg, 2200 m², and Coriovallum/Heerlen, 2500 m²).

The building itself was dismantled for building materials in the post-Roman period, leaving only parts of the foundations, some waterproof concrete and a few hypocaust pilae. Some rooms seem to have had a floor of black and white flagstones, while fragments of wall painting, marble veneer for the walls, and column shafts in limestone and sandstone have also been found. The small finds include hundreds of bone hairpins, small jewellery, and a small bronze bust of Bacchus. The baths were probably constructed in the (early) second century CE, when Ulpia Noviomagus was granted city rights by emperor Trajan.

Read the original announcement (in Dutch), including a hypothetical virtual reconstruction.

All photo credits: Gemeente Nijmegen.