The Central Baths are the largest bathing complex planned in ancient Pompeii. The building occupies an entire insula in Regio IX.
Construction was still underway at the time of the eruption in AD 79, and the complex never became fully operational. Its design reflects innovations introduced in the great bath buildings of the Neronian period, with rooms that were larger, brighter and more monumental than those of Pompeii’s older baths.
The arrangement also differed from that of the Stabian Baths and Forum Baths: there were no two completely separate sections for men and women, and it is thought that access may instead have been organised at different times.
The unfinished building now provides an unusually clear view of some of the techniques used to construct a large Roman bath complex.
