The Baths of Caracalla 3

The Baths of Caracalla were adorned with columns, precious marble slabs on the pavements and on the walls, glass-paste mosaics on the vaults, stucco paintings and hundreds of statues and colossal sculptures. During the Middle Ages the Thermae were used as a quarry for precious materials: several figured capitals were reused in the Cathedral of Pisa and in the Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, in Rome. During the excavations carried out by the Pope Paul III Farnese (1534-1549), many sculptures were unearthed, which became part of important collections of antiquities, for example the Farnese Collection. Among the most famous works of art, known as Farnese Bull, and the Farnese Hercules; today they are on display in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, because Elisabeth, the last heir of the Farnese family, brought the collection in dowry to her husband, Philip V of Bourbon. A granite column, coming from the swimming pool, was raised in Piazza S. Trinita in Florence in 1563, while the two grey granite basins, found in the frigidarium, were reused as fountains in Piazza Farnese in Rome in the 17^th century. During the excavations of 1824 the famous mosaics of athletes were found, which are now preserved in the Vatican Museums; among the recent findings, a statue of Artemis, discovered in the underground galleries in 1996 and displayed in the Museo Nazionale Romano, in Rome.

Source: Information panels of the Baths.