A resource for the study of ancient baths

Praefurnium

Pl.: praefurnia

The service room that preceded a furnace. In modern research, it is often erroneously used to designate a furnace. These rooms lay on a lower level than the circulation floors of the heated rooms of the bathhouse, as the furnaces had to heat the hypocaust (i.e. the cavity underneath the suspensura).

Plan of the Forum Baths of Cumae, with its two praefurnia highlighted in orange (plan by Konogan Beaufay, redrawn from Guardascione 2019, fig. 1)

The main praefurnium of the baths of Faesulae, in Tuscany. Note the two brick stands for boilers around the large furnace at the centre of the picture, and a second furnace in the background (photo Konogan Beaufay).