Terme Erculee, Roman thermal baths in Milan, Italy

Terme Erculee is an ancient Roman bathhouse in central Milan, made up of interconnected rooms and pools that once served the city of Mediolanum. A portion of the outer wall of the cold water pool is the only visible remnant today, still standing between modern buildings along a city street.

The baths were built in the late 3rd century on the orders of Emperor Maximian, at a time when Milan, then called Mediolanum, had become the capital of the western Roman Empire. Their construction was part of a wave of major building works carried out across the city during that period.

The baths stood at the heart of Roman Milan and were a place where people met to bathe, talk, and spend time together. The surviving wall, visible from the street today, gives a sense of how central this kind of gathering place was to everyday city life.

The visible remains can be seen from the street in central Milan without entering any building or paying any fee. A short stop while walking through the area is enough to take in the ancient wall, which stands right alongside everyday city buildings.

The baths covered 14,500 square metres, measuring 127 by 112 metres, with walls up to 1.5 metres thick. Their layout closely resembled that of the Imperial Baths of Trier. Water may have come from the Acqualunga channel or the Seveso River. A section of wall and floor mosaics were found at the church of San Vito in Pasquirolo.