Baths and Rustic Area
Approximately 40 metres from the manor house, are the baths which served the villa. The foundations of the furnaces can be clearly seen. To the south, we have the arched heating structure, tanks waterproofed with opus signinum, and the plumbing.
The concern that was taken to keep the furnace for the baths away from the other buildings of the residential area and servants quarters is well known, and it was prescribed by one of the ancient, basic fire-prevention regulations. The furnace was located to the north of the villa urbana, so that the residence would not become too hot, since this was also warmed by the sun, as it faced south. The mouth of the furnace faced south and was thus protected from the predominantly northerly winds. The caldarium was also aligned strictly southwest in order to take maximum advantage of the sun's rays in the afternoon.
The apodyterium (from the Greek apodyterion) in the Rabaçal baths is quadrangular. It may have been domed. It was not heated, and probably had a fountain for partial washings, since a limestone wash basin has been discovered, moved away from its original position. This hypothesis is supported by the discovery of a loose fragment of lead piping, and the recognition that the room is crossed by pipes, and also by the well preserved opus signinum floor. The plumbing was detected by the hollow sound heard on tapping certain parts of the floor. It would have had benches along the walls, as can be seen alongside the frigidarium, furnished with cushions or carpets where the bathers could sit while they undressed or waited their turn. The walls would have had niches, compartments where there may have been cupboards for clothes or other personal belongings.
The calderium (or calidarium) was an apsed rectangular shape, and was probably covered by a barrel-vaulted dome, as is suggested by the dome tubes and recessed tiles of the arches already discovered, which would have supported the dome. Two semi-circular baths for immersion and splashing (alveus) have been discovered. As we can see, this heated room was built with technical safety devices. It was also decorated with plaster reliefs. In order to benefit from the rays of the sun in the afternoon, the whole block would have had wide windows, as was common at the time, enclosed with various small panes of opaque glass mounted in iron.
The tepidarium, smaller than the caldarium, were moderately heated, and so shared walls with the heated part of the baths. There would have been a bench running along the walls of this section, and it may have had niches or cupboards for clothes.
The frigidarium is formed, as we can see, by a tank and access steps. In some cases, an open-air swimming pool, or natatio, would complete the cold section, joined to the frigidarium, but does not seem to have been included here.
As we know, for the Romans bathing was far more than a simple question of hygiene; it was a way of preventing disease through massage, running, wrestling, swimming, steam treatments, and toning of the skin. The baths were also recreational, a meeting place and social venue.
Bathing was the subject of individual imagination, as well as fashion, conviction and medical speculation. Asclepius, in the time of Pompey, prescribed cold baths, which were especially enjoyed by the young people who bathed proudly in the Tiber and in the cold springs around the city.
There was however a well defined code of medical rules concerning the correct way to take a bath.
There were essentially four stages:
1. A period in the super-heated room in order to work up a sweat;
2. A bath in hot water to remove perspiration;
3. A bath in cold water for toning the skin;
4. Massage and friction treatments.
To each of these stages there corresponded a complex and variable series of rooms, consisting in Rabaçal of three main areas: the frigidarium, with a cold bath; the tepidarium, which was essentially a room for rest and acclimatization, and the caldarium, with hot baths.
The building was entered from the northwest and gave into a wide square room, which has not yet been completely excavated, that functioned as a vestibule (apodyterium). To the left of the entrance, there is a square tank for cold baths, which was entered by climbing two steps that ran along the whole western side of the tank and then descending by the steps (still there today) inside the southern end.
The south side of the vestibule had two doors. One, half way along the wall, connects to the hot area, built under hypocaust. This is, as we have seen, a subterranean system with small tile arches, upon which was set a floor made of big tiles that channelled the hot air and a thick layer of cement (laid on tiles or bricks), made of ground brick, limestone and sand, which proofed it. The other door from the vestibule to the tepidarium (roughly filled in at a later date), was at the top of the southern wall of the vestibule.
The other areas within the caldarium, which are still not fully excavated, were designed as sweating area and the hot bath.
The furnace, normally covered with refractory stone, is situated on one of the smaller sides (south) of the rectangular compartment over the hypocaust, and heated the room, baths and water deposited in the bronze and copper boilers that today have disappeared or have not yet been located.
The service areas had enough room to store plenty of wood to fuel the heating system.
Climbing the slope, also bout 40 metres away, we can see the foundations of the villa rustica (living quarters of the domestic servants and farm workers) and the villa fructuaria, where we expect to find the barn, the olive press, the stables, outhouses and other buildings, as the excavation work progresses. These would naturally have connected directly to the fundus or agricultural property by private roads.
(PESSOA, RODRIGO, SANTOS, 2001, p. 49-51).
