Warming up of the Romans

Warming up of the Romans

At the beginning of their history, the Romans had chosen to exploit the natural thermal springs, just as the other peoples of the area had done before them. In the imperial era, however, instead of moving towards the spa areas, the Romans decided to move the spas within their large cities.

In an underground room, hot air coming from one or two ovens was circulated under the floor and in the walls. The ovens, fueled according to the intensity or duration of the flame by wood, charcoal or fagots, produced hot air at very high temperatures. The air was then made to flow into an empty space created under the internal flooring and into pipes behind the walls formed by small piles of bricks (suspensurae) through which the heat circulated to warm the floor of the rooms suspended above the same hypocaust.

Special pipes were set up to eliminate fumes.