National Museum Čačak

National Museum Čačak

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Roman baths in Čačak

On the occasion of construction works of residential-commercial building in the center of Čačak, in the section between the House of culture and city promenade, behind the hotel “Beograd”, a building dated to the Roman period was found, whose name of Roman baths was widely accepted.

After the archaeological excavations in 1970 the foundations were preserved, according to the project designed by R. Prokić. In the same time, the baths legally became a Cultural Monument under the care of the National Museum in Čačak.

This edifice belonged to a bigger complex dated to the late Antiquity (4th and 5th century) situated in the central zone of modern Čačak. Baths consisted of eight rooms directed E-W. Preserved part was 22, 60 х 18, 45 m in dimensions, i.e. average surface of 340 square meters. Northern and central rooms were used as a dressing room, palestra and room for cold bath. In the southern part were rooms with warm water, room for sweating and a toilette. The baths were warmed thanks to the system of warm air that circulated beneath the floors and throughout the walls. Warmed floors were build on the pillars made of bricks.

Baths were built of stone and bricks, with glass on windows, while floors were paved by bricks specifically shaped, resembling the butterfly and hexagon in shape. The frescoes that consisted of ribbons colored in red, light blue and greenish blue were on the walls.

A small number of findings can be the consequence of long-term use of the baths. There were found characteristic ceramics, glass ware and several glass bracelets and beads.

Roman baths in Čačak were built at the end of 3rd and the beginning of the 4th century, while in the 2nd half of the 5th century were renewed and used with the same purpose. The baths were abandoned at the end of the 5th century. Much later, on the same area a medieval graveyard was formed.