A sizeable thermal complex that remained for 2 thousand years under a layer of volcanic rock and ash inside a private domus in the ancient city of Pompeii has been discovered.

A “once in a century” discovery has been unearthed in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. For 2,000 years, it remained hidden under layers of volcanic rock and ash. Archaeologists discovered a large bathhouse with hot, warm, and cold rooms, exquisite works of art, and a huge plunge pool. The spa complex is at the centre of a magnificent residence brought to light during a significant excavation over the last two years.

The discovery made during the excavation site of the Regio IX of Pompeii now offers an ideal setting, where one of the largest private thermal complexes emerged, attached to a banquet hall. A balneum in the spa complex and then the banquet, in the next room, where the owner of the house would have received his guests in luxury so that they would talk at length about that evening and perhaps, remaining fascinated by it, decide to grant their electoral consent to the dominus. A scene that must not have been unusual in Pompeii in the 1st century AD is also told in the Satyricon, where the wealthy freedman Trimalchio celebrates his famous dinner.

In Pompeii, there are a few other examples of this size, including the baths of the Praedia of Giulia Felice, those of the House of the Labyrinth and the Villa of Diomede. The baths, composed of caldarium, tepidarium, frigidarium, hot, warm and cold room, and changing room, apodyterium, could accommodate up to thirty people judging by the benches present in the latter room. The cold room is imposing, consisting of a peristyle, i.e. a porticoed courtyard measuring 10×10 metres, in the centre of which is a large basin.

The complex is among the largest and most complex private spa sectors known so far in the Pompeian Domus light. Few other examples of this size are present in Pompeii, including the Praedia baths of Giulia Felice, those of the House of the Labyrinth and the Villa of Diomede. The choice to locate the complex near the large triclinium, a banquet hall, recalls the Satyricon, the novel by Gaius Petronius Arbitrio, in which the wealthy freedman Trimalchio celebrates his famous dinner set in a Campanian city of the 1st century AD, a reality not far from Pompeii before the eruption of 79 AD.