The Roman baths
Het Romeins Museum, Heerlen
Nowhere else in the Netherlands can you still walk into a real Roman building, except in Heerlen. It is the largest and best-preserved archaeological excavation in our country. It is the place where the Roman citizen of Heerlen took his bath – and you are allowed to look inside. Step into the Roman bathhouse and discover Roman Heerlen and South Limburg in the Thermenmuseum.
It must have been a busy place in Coriovallum, Roman Heerlen. As you walk across the bridge that now spans the enormous bathhouse, you can see different rooms: a dressing room, plunge baths, sweat rooms… You can even still see remains of mosaic. Modern technology supports your imagination. In a separate exhibition you can experience for yourself what it was really like in the bathhouse.
People did more than just bathe in and around Coriovallum. Think of trading, growing food and making pottery. Archaeological treasures of Roman activities are exhibited thematically in the permanent collection. You will even find a complete, original cross-section of the Via Belgica.
Discover
- Step 2000 years back in time in a Roman bathhouse
- Let the archaeological finds come to life
- Discover the immense Roman influence in South Limburg
- Get to know Heerlen as a city of potters
Fun to know
- Pottery town Coriovallum
- Present-day Heerlen was in Roman times, when it was still called Coriovallum, a true pottery empire. More than forty pottery kilns have been found. One very special example was excavated at the Luciushof. Firing such a kiln did not always go well. At that time this kiln exploded, its contents were abandoned, and the whole was buried and forgotten. During excavations in 1971 a large quantity of pottery came to light. The inscriptions on one particular jug tell us that potter “Lucius Ferenius made this jug for Amaka,” probably his wife. The entire pottery collection of Lucius can be admired in the Thermenmuseum.