Unearthed bathhouse reveals a thriving Roman Nijmegen: 'The Romans did not regard this city as a backwater'

Excavations in Nijmegen-West have uncovered large sections of a Roman bathhouse. It is the largest bathhouse complex from the Roman period in the Netherlands. Radboud researcher Stephan Mols can often be found at the excavation site. "The new finds show that the Romans did not regard this city as a backwater. The buildings were even larger and more imposing than we had previously thought."

Mols does not carry out the excavations himself; archaeologists from the research agencies RAAP and BAAC do that work. However, the Radboud researcher does keep a close eye on the excavations. Based at Radboud University, Mols and his team are working with the archaeologists and the Valkhof Museum to gain a better understanding of Roman Nijmegen, Ulpia Noviomagus.

The excavations began in September last year and will continue until the end of July this year. The finds were made at a new-build site developed by BPD | Bouwfonds Gebiedsontwikkeling. In addition to the bathhouse, archaeologists have discovered adjacent blocks of houses with streets running between them, luxurious townhouses and a tower. They have also found many remarkable objects, such as hairpins, jewelry, coins and a bronze bust of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine.

Historic bathhouse complex

"A bathhouse was an integral part of a Roman town," says Mols. "During the excavations, we see only the lower parts of the buildings, often the foundations or sometimes just the spot where they once stood. But from this we can deduce just how large and imposing this bathhouse complex must have been in 3D. This shows that Roman Nijmegen was a city of considerable stature, well into the third century."

With a floor area of at least 4,900 square meters (52,700 square feet), the entire bathhouse complex at Ulpia Noviomagus was certainly twice as large as the previously investigated public bathhouses of the Roman towns of Forum Hadriani (2,200 square meters, Voorburg near The Hague) and Coriovallum (2,500 square meters, Heerlen).

Part of the bathhouse had already been discovered in 1992. At that time, only a relatively small section could be investigated. It is believed that the Roman settlement on the River Waal in what is now Nijmegen-West was granted city rights by Emperor Marcus Ulpius Trajanus around the year 100 AD and that, shortly afterward, a number of large public buildings were erected using natural stone. One of these was the public bathhouse.

The excavation reveals that costly building materials were used, such as marble, limestone and sandstone. The complex was used as a quarry during the Middle Ages and afterward, resulting in the demolition of many of the walls. However, large sections of the drainage channels and floors remain intact, including a concrete floor topped with small brick pillars from a hypocaust, the Roman underfloor heating system.

State-of-the-art technology

"If you'd been walking around here back then, you wouldn't have gotten the impression that you were on the edge of the Roman Empire, such was the luxury and scale of the buildings," says Mols. "The Romans didn't regard this city as a backwater. There were a lot of soldiers here. When they weren't fighting, they needed something to keep them occupied, so they built complexes like this."

Mols and his colleagues want to investigate the technology used in the bathhouse, for example in the underfloor and wall heating systems. Mols said, "We can still learn a thing or two from that today. The same applies to the mortar—Roman concrete —which was self-healing: If it cracked, it could repair itself. Knowledge of this is also very useful for scientific research into self-healing materials."

Who's behind this story?

Lisa Lock

BA art history, MA material culture. Former museum editor, paramedic, and transplant coordinator. Editing for Science X since 2021.

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Robert Egan

Bachelor's in mathematical biology, Master's in creative writing. Well-traveled with unique perspectives on science and language.

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Unearthed bathhouse reveals a thriving Roman Nijmegen: 'The Romans did not regard this city as a backwater' (2026, June 19)

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