Forum baths

The spa at the cattle market (also cattle market Baths ) in Trier are a bath complex of Roman origin, which near the Forum of the Roman city - was - the Augusta Treverorum. Your name have the hot springs of the place, under which they were discovered, the so-called " cattle market ".

The cattle market spas and the remains of the building erected on its site of a Capuchin monastery are now protected by a building designed by architect Oswald Mathias Ungers and are accessible to visitors and events.

History

The Romans began about 80 AD with the construction of the thermal baths. She was thus the first Trier thermal facility (older than Barbara Baths and Imperial Baths ). About 20 years later, the construction of cattle market spas has been completed. The baths were designed so that the light Warmbad got out of the warm south. The cold bath had its windows in the cold north.

The 8364 m² spa complex was the most used in the 3rd and 4th century. After the decline of the Roman Trier, the baths were no longer used as a bathing facility and fell into disrepair over the centuries. In the 13th century the spa ruins lost to substance because they are managed as a quarry.

In the 17th and 18th century the Capuchins built several buildings on the eastern part of the ruin. The remaining area used the Order to build a monastery garden, from the 1802 after the dissolution of the monastery of the so-called cattle market as a marketplace was. The ruins were forgotten, and it was generally believed that there had been only two thermal baths in Trier ( Barbarathermen and Imperial Baths ).

Rediscovery and Ungers construction

1987 were discovered during excavation for an underground car park on the remains and then made up to 1994 excavations at the site of the cattle market. The underground car park was finally built just under one compared to the original plans somewhat shifted part of the cattle market, in order to obtain a large part of the ruins. The building was - as well as other civil engineering works in the Trier city center - but criticized as the archeological layers irretrievably destroyed by the depth of the excavation.

The architect Oswald Mathias Ungers designed a protective building with glass facades, which is largely in the form of a large cuboid has (of the of Trier often called just " Ungers showcase ") for the excavated ruins of thermal baths and Capuchin Monastery. In Unger's also the current paving on the cattle market is falling, which traces the location of the Roman road axes in reddish stones. According to Unger's concept that he designed buildings should give the impression of an elevator: Along the high support columns is the pavement was " booted " and thereby become the underlying ruins visible. True to this concept is the flat roof of the building with stones and covered in the pattern of the cattle market patch (not visible from below).

In the archaeological experts Ungers is not without controversy, since he " destroyed parts of the protected ancient substance unnecessarily by cutting and drilling of masonry " has " in the construction of this" Schutzbaues. The architect was later also called for the establishment of the new, monumental entrance area to the Imperial Baths, for which the northern edge development obtained until then the Palaestra were sacrificed.

Since June 1998, the ruins are accessible for sightseeing. Especially at night, the premises also for different public or private events, such as concerts or the annual wine forum used.