Remains of underfloor heating in the area of the bath. The supports made of tiles carried the floor, with warm air circulating in the space between [Credit: Peter Jülich]
hypercaust
Also used instead of hypocaust; that is, a reference to "underfloor heating".
The air was heated by a furnace (outside the rooms) and once it had circulated underneath the flagstone floors, it escaped via flues in the walls of the rooms, or spaces in the walls, for heat to travel upward. [WordInfo]
Interesting...
That’s gonna need to be completely re-grouted. New tiles too - I’d go with ceramic this time.
And that was the LAST time they bathed ... </gratutuous insult>
In the days before chlorine those baths must have been Petri dishes!
In ancient times it was an important crossroads. After Christianization of the Empire it became a Bishopric with a basilica. During the wars between the Byzantines and Muslims and later Crusades it was in a border zone fought over by both sides until the ultimate Muslim conquest, after which the burg went into decline. Apparently, bathing went out of style, too.
![Remains of underfloor heating in the area of the bath. The supports made of tiles carried the floor, with warm air circulating in the space between [Credit: Peter Jülich]](https://media.eurekalert.org/multimedia_prod/pub/web/184570_web.jpg)