page_title: Romanization of Hispania
section_title: Bathhouses
hierarchical_section_title: Romanization of Hispania / Civil Projects / Urban works / Bathhouses
caption_attribution_description: Español: Piscina de las termas de Zaragoza
context_page_description: The Romanization of Hispania is the process by which Roman or Latin culture was introduced into the Iberian Peninsula during the period of Roman rule.
  Throughout the centuries of Roman rule over the provinces of Hispania, Roman customs, religion, laws and the general Roman lifestyle, gained much favour in the indigenous population, which was compounded by a substantial minority of Roman immigrants, which eventually formed a distinct Hispano-Roman culture. Several factors aided the process of Romanization:
  Creation of civil infrastructure, including road networks and urban sanitation.
  Commercial interaction within regions and the wider Roman world.
  Foundation of colonia; settling Roman military veterans in newly created towns and cities.
  The spread of the hierarchical Roman administrative system throughout the Hispanic provinces.
  Growth of Roman aristocratic land holdings.
  According to historian Theodore Mommsen in the late fourth century the romanization of the Iberian peninsula was practically at 100%
context_section_description: Roman culture worshiped the body, and therefore the health of it. The hot springs or public baths became meeting places for people from all walks of life, and their use was encouraged by the authorities, which sometimes covered their expenses which allowed free access to the population. Although men and women sometimes shared the same spaces, bath times were different for each: women came in the morning while the men did at dusk. Those available in separate sections for men and women, the separate areas devoted to them were given the name spas.
  In the Iberian Peninsula there is great diversity of such archaeological buildings, highlighting their conservation status such as the Baths of Alange near Merida which, after several restorations over the 18th and 19th centuries, are now open the public as part of a medicinal water spa.
  The Roman bath is a structure defined by its function, as shown in the schematic diagram of Azaila . The apodyterium was also the entrance to the baths, which also acted as a locker room. Then it led to another room called tepidarium which consisted of a warm room which in turn gave way to frigidarium or the caldearium rooms, hot and cold water respectively. The hot water rom caldearium was oriented to the south to receive the maximum amount of sunlight. Under the floor of this room was a series of pipes through which hot water circulated, or in smaller bathhouses they used a more residential style of hypocaust heating. The frigidarium, however, used to be an open pool of cool water.
  Generally, the spa is surrounded by gardens and other accessory buildings with services for visitors such as gymnasiums, libraries or other places of assembly (laconium), all with the aim of providing customers with a pleasant and invigorating environment. These springs require large numbers of staff to operate, particularly taking into account the need for large amounts of hot water, the need for materials and to properly serve customers.
caption: Pool at the baths in Caesaraugusta
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