Overview
As with the so-called Temple of Venus not far away, here too it is not necessary to purchase an entrance ticket to the Archaeological Park of the Baths of Baia to admire the largest domed hall of the archaeological concentration that characterises the Bàcoli area. Even for this building, which is separated from the park by the railway line that has connected the Campi Flegrei to the centre of Naples since the end of the 19th century, not
one can speak of a temple, as early archaeologists had thought: instead, it is part of a thermal complex built against the walls of the volcanic crater at the time. Diana, the goddess of the hunt, had been thought of for a marble relief depicting animals found in the area, but it was probably only a remnant of the elegant decoration that covered walls and ceilings.
The surviving masonry has been meticulously analysed, leading to the conclusion that the building is the most recent, an adjective perhaps a little misplaced, speaking of antiquity, among the great bath complexes of Baia. A probable date may place it around the third century, a period when Emperor Alexander Severus had, as sources report, built a sumptuous palace for his mother Julia Avita Mamea.
