Herculaneum rediscovers its Suburban Baths: a journey into Roman luxury and daily life

After twenty years of closure, the Suburban Baths of Herculaneum are finally open again to visitors, offering one of the most extraordinary archaeological experiences in Italy. This jewel of the Roman era, considered the best-preserved bath complex of the Empire, welcomes visitors in an unprecedented way: the tour takes place inside a visible restoration site, where one has the rare opportunity to closely observe the restorers’ work and to understand the care and dedication required to preserve this millennia-old place. The reopening is not just a return to public enjoyment, but also an opportunity for dialogue and direct engagement with ancient heritage, as emphasized by Francesco Sirano, the official entrusted with the direction of the Herculaneum Archaeological Park and the new director of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. Sirano stressed the importance of allowing visitors to perceive both the extraordinary beauty of the spaces and the devotion needed to return them to future generations.

The baths are located between the city walls and the ancient shoreline of Herculaneum, nestled at the foot of luxurious seafront villas. They were built in the Augustan age as a private bath for the prestigious family of the Nonii Balbi, later expanded and opened to the public. The panoramic terrace adjacent to the funerary monument of Marcus Nonius Balbus introduced visitors to a path adorned with marble floors, stuccoes, and finely crafted paintings—testimonies of an elevated lifestyle and a sense of luxury that still fascinates today. The true gem of the complex is its heating system, innovative for its time, which played a decisive role in the exceptional state of preservation of the environments.

The bathing route comprised four main rooms that structured the wellness ritual. The frigidarium was a magnificent hall decorated with marbles and frescoes, an oasis of coolness and elegance. From there, visitors passed into the tepidarium, now known as the “Hall of the Warriors,” where finely modeled stucco figures of warriors could be admired, probably inspired by Aeschylus’ tragedy The Seven Against Thebes. These decorations give the room a strong theatrical value, enhanced by marble benches and traces of the heating system: tubuli embedded in the walls testify to the engineering skill achieved by Roman craftsmen. The tepidarium was a place of rest and acclimatization, but also of socialization, reflecting the central role of bathing in ancient Herculaneum.

In the calidarium, guests found a rectangular pool and an elegant labrum in cipollino marble, overturned by the fury of the eruption of 79 AD, leaving an imprint still visible today. The final space was the Grand Calidarium with natatio, a covered pool whose vault was adorned with decorations designed to collect drops of condensation and prevent them from falling on bathers—an ingenious detail that highlights the great attention paid to comfort. A rare induction heating system, today called “samovar-style,” kept the central pool warm at all times and fed three saunas housed in separate rooms. The thermal function was ensured by praefurnia, underground furnaces with burning embers along a corridor next to the saunas, a striking example of Roman technical mastery in guaranteeing wellness and hygiene.

Discovered in 1940, the Suburban Baths have undergone numerous excavation campaigns, including those needed to overcome the challenges posed by groundwater seepage. The complex’s full structure was only revealed in 1973, but over time it suffered damage and required consolidation, leading to its long closure. The current reopening is the result of an extensive conservation and enhancement program carried out by the Herculaneum Archaeological Park in collaboration with the Packard Humanities Institute. Active at the site since 2001, the institute has supported the recovery and stabilization of the baths, finally making their return to the public possible.

The Suburban Baths of Herculaneum are unique in the global archaeological landscape. Returning them, even in part, to collective enjoyment means bringing back to life a place that tells the story of daily life, wellness, and social interaction in ancient Herculaneum—offering a privileged window into how its inhabitants lived, related to one another, and cared for themselves. The visitor route, enriched by the exceptional preservation of the spaces, allows for a journey through time, immersing oneself in stuccoes, mosaics, marbles, and ingenious heating systems, in direct contact with a heritage that time and nature have miraculously safeguarded.

For many visitors, the sight of the restoration site becomes an opportunity to approach the world of archaeological conservation and enhancement, to understand up close the patient work of restorers, the daily battle against infiltration, and the need to adopt cutting-edge techniques to ensure the safety and stability of the spaces. This reopening marks a paradigm shift in heritage management: moving away from the concept of a closed, inaccessible site, it opens to the public as a living space where memory, research, and the transmission of knowledge coexist. The experience becomes moving and engaging precisely because of its authenticity: visitors observe, learn, and interact not only with history but also with those who safeguard and protect it every day.

The story of the discovery and restoration of the Suburban Baths is, in fact, a story of challenges overcome and goals achieved thanks to the synergistic work of public and private institutions, archaeologists, restorers, art historians, and technicians. Each space reveals a fragment of life in Herculaneum and its community, offering a rich, layered narrative that conveys the charm of an era when body culture, health, and the pleasures of social life blended seamlessly with the beauty of artistic forms.

Today, the site’s reopening stands as one of the greatest opportunities for the promotion of the Vesuvian territory, attracting scholars, tourists, and local citizens alike. The Suburban Baths thus become a symbol of rebirth and resilience, an example of how the recovery of major archaeological complexes can generate knowledge, identity, and cultural development. Reopening the doors of Herculaneum means giving new voice to a place that, with extraordinary detail and without filters, tells the story of wellness, everyday life, and social relations in Roman society.